TVA and the Grass Roots

The famous and influential study of organizations and politics in action at all levels in the creation and expansion of the Tennessee Valley Authority -- with all its land use, agricultural, social and human effects. Landmark application of Selznick's influential and highly original organizational theory coupled with prodigious research and insightful analysis have made this a legendary work. 


Newly republished in print and digital formats in the Classics of the Social Sciences Series from Quid Pro Books, this acclaimed book is presented to a new generation of social scientists and historians with a new Foreword by Berkeley law professor Jonathan Simon. "As Selznick shows with brilliant clarity," Simon notes, "the Authority began from the very start a strategy of cooptation and accommodation with powerful local institutions in the states in which it operated, a strategy that would fatally compromise its ability to change the structure of inequality and economic stagnation in the region." Among many other current uses of this study, "Selznick's keen analytic vision of formal organizations struggling to survive and achieve their substantive goals, in hostile environments dominated by pre-existing organizations and deep cultural and social preconceptions, remains an inspiration to any researcher embarking on the study of a formal organization. It is little wonder that the book has been cited in over 2,000 scholarly books and articles, including more than 700 since the year 2000 alone."


Philip Selznick (1919-2010) taught generations of law and sociology students as a professor of sociology and jurisprudence & social policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He was founding chair of Berkeley's Center for the Study of Law and Society.


The new ebook format includes embedded page numbers from prior editions, for continuity of reference and citation -- in a modern, authorized, and accessible presentation.