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A probing and incisive analysis of the
major world transformation from the Age of Capitalism to
the Knowledge Society and how it will affect society, economics,
business, and politics now and in the years ahead.
In Post-Capitalist Society Peter
Drucker describes how every few hundred years a sharp transformation
has taken place and greatly affected society -- its worldview,
its basic values, its business and economics, and its social
and political structure. According to Drucker, we are right
in the middle of another time of radical change, from the
Age of Capitalism and the Nation-State to a Knowledge Society
and a Society of Organizations. The primary resource in
the post-capitalist society will be knowledge and the leading
social groups will be "knowledge workers."
Looking backward and forward, Drucker discusses
the Industrial Revolution, the Productivity Revolution,
the Management Revolution, and the governance of corporations.
He explains the new functions of organizations, the economics
of knowledge, and productivity as a social and economic
priority. He covers the transformation from Nation-State
to Megastate, the new pluralism of political systems, and
the needed government turnaround. Finally, Drucker details
the knowledge issues and the role and use of knowledge in
post-capitalist society.
Divided into three parts -- Society, Polity,
and Knowledge -- Post-Capitalist Society provides
a searching look into the future as well as a vital analysis
of the past, focusing on the challenges of the present transition
period and how, if we can understand and respond to them,
we can create a new future.
Peter F. Drucker was born in 1909 in
Vienna and was educated there and in England. He took his
doctorate in public and international law while working
as a newspaper reporter in Frankfurt, Germany, and then
worked as an economist for an international bank in London.
In 1937 he came to the United States, and his first book,
The End of Economic Man, was published in 1939. Drucker's
management books and analyses of economics and society are
widely read and respected throughout the world and have
been translated into more than twenty languages. He has
also written a lively autobiography, two novels, and several
volumes of essays. He has been a frequent contributor to
various magazines and journals over the years and is an
editorial columnist for the Wall Street Journal.
Peter Drucker has had a distinguished
career as a teacher, first as a professor of politics and
philosophy at Bennington College, then for more than twenty
years as a professor of management at the Graduate Business
School of New York University. Since 1971 he has been Clark
Professor of Social Science at Claremont Graduate School
in California.
Drucker has four children and six grandchildren.
A hiker and a student of Japan and Japanese art, he lives
with his wife in Claremont, California.
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