Books by John Torpey

Once the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the people of East Germany had little use for the dissident intellectuals who had helped bring it down. This book offers a look into the circumstances of this fall from grace, unique among the former Communist states.

How can historical developments and discoveries be used to affect future outcomes? Sociologist and historian John Torpey proposes that the "Axial Age," a period in the first millennium BCE when major religious and intellectual developments emerged, can be used to directly affect present social problems, from economic inequality to ecological destruction.

This book explores the recent spread of political efforts to rectify past injustices. Although it recognizes that reparations campaigns may lead to improved well-being of victims and to reconciliation among former antagonists, it examines the extent to which concern with the past may depart from the future orientation of progressive politics.