Background
Sommerville, Charles John was born on August 15, 1938 in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Son of William Baker and Kathryn Marie Sommerville.
(The News Revolution in England: Cultural Dynamics of Dail...)
The News Revolution in England: Cultural Dynamics of Daily Information is the first book to analyze the essential feature of periodical media, which is their periodicity. Having to sell the next issue as well as the present one changes the relation between authors and readers--or customers--and subtly shapes the way that everything is reported, whether politics, the arts and science, or social issues. So there are certain biases that are implicit in the dynamics of news production or commodified information, quite apart from the intentions of journalists. With the birth of the commercial periodical in late seventeenth century England, news became a commodity. What constituted news, how it was presented and received, and how people responded to it underwent a fundamental change. Rather than any democratic print revolution, in which the masses suddenly had access to cheap and accessible information, C. John Sommerville shows that the arrival of the commercial press was in fact restrictive, dictating what was discussed and ultimately how it was discussed. The News Revolution in England looks at the history of journalism from an entirely different angle--the effect of the medium rather than the intentions of the journalists. It will be of interest to historians of England, journalism, and news, along with anyone interested in how the media shapes our world and how we come to relate to it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195106679/?tag=2022091-20
(The American university has embraced a thorough secularis...)
The American university has embraced a thorough secularism that makes it increasingly marginal in a society that is characterized by high levels of religious belief. The very secularization that was supposed to be a liberating influence has resulted in the university's failure to provide leadership in political, cultural, social, and even scientific arenas. In The Decline of the Secular University, C. John Sommerville explores several different ways in which the secular university fails in its mission through its trivialization of religion. He notes how little attention is being given to defining the human, so crucial in all aspects of professional education. He alerts us to problems associated with the prevailing secular distinction between "facts" and "values." He reviews how the elimination of religion hampers the university from understanding our post-Cold War world. Sommerville then shows how a greater awareness of the intellectual resources of religion might stimulate more forthright attention to important matters like our loss of a sense of history, how to problematize secularism, the issue of judging religions, the oddity of academic moralizing, and the strangeness of science at the frontiers. Finally, he invites the reader to imagine a university where religion is not ruled out but rather welcomed as a legitimate voice among others. Sommerville's bracing and provocative arguments are sure to provoke controversy and stimulate discussion both inside and outside the academy.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195306953/?tag=2022091-20
(This study overcomes the ambiguity and daunting scale of ...)
This study overcomes the ambiguity and daunting scale of the subject of secularization by using the insights of anthropology and sociology, and by examining an earlier period than usually considered. Concentrating not only on a decline of religious belief, which is the last aspect of secularization, this study shows that a transformation of England's cultural grammar had to precede that loosening of belief, and that this was largely accomplished between 1500 and 1700. Only when definitions of space and time changed and language and technology were transformed (as well as art and play) could a secular world-view be sustained. As aspects of daily life became divorced from religious values and controls, religious culture was supplanted by religious faith, a reasoned, rather than an unquestioned, belief in the supernatural. Sommerville shows that this process was more political and theological than economic or social.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195074270/?tag=2022091-20
(Like Philippe Aries's Centuries of Childhood, this histor...)
Like Philippe Aries's Centuries of Childhood, this history of child rearing shows how the treatment of children holds the key to a society's success or failure and draws implications
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679728295/?tag=2022091-20
Sommerville, Charles John was born on August 15, 1938 in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Son of William Baker and Kathryn Marie Sommerville.
Bachelor History, University Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, 1960. Master of Arts History, University Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, 1963. Doctor of Philosophy History, University Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, 1970.
Instructor Stanford University, Stanford, California, 1968—1971. Professor University Florida, Gainesville, Florida, 1971—2005, professor emeritus, since 2005. Member Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, 1993—1994.
Senior mentor Pew Younger Scholars Mentoring Program, Notre Dame, Indiana, 2000—2003.
(This study overcomes the ambiguity and daunting scale of ...)
(Like Philippe Aries's Centuries of Childhood, this histor...)
(The News Revolution in England: Cultural Dynamics of Dail...)
(The American university has embraced a thorough secularis...)
Fellow: Center the Study World Religions.
Married Susan Gail Hines, June 12, 1964. Children: Eden Elizabeth, Henry Samuel.