Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2006. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-69). Also available on line.

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2006. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains iv, 69 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 68-69).

Emil Lederer (1882 - 1939), born in Pilsen, Czech Republic, was an important figure of German social sciences. A close colleague of Max Weber and friend of Karl Mannheim or J. A. Schumpeter, he taught at universities in Heidelberg, Berlin and Tokyo. After fleeing Germany, he helped Alvin Johnson, director of the New School for Social Research, found the "University in Exile." Lederer's research centered on contemporary social problems, approaching them in a critical, objective, empirically- based way. One of the first to study the new middle classes before World War I, he also dealt with unemployment, technological progress and business cycles. Additionally, his analysis of state and its sovereignty in war lead him to study the question of totalitarianism. The present thesis first offers a detailed look at the events in Lederer's life which influenced his scientific work. Its central section presents the main ideas of Lederer's posthumous, and sociologically most important, monograph State of the Masses. Placing it within the context of his previous work, the thesis demonstrates the evolution of Lederer's thinking. By comparing the work with Hannah Arendt's Origins of Totalitarianism the thesis confirms existing assumptions that Lederer's text served as an unrecognized inspiration for Arendt. The...