George Lundskow

Fame. Money. Power.
These self-serving desires lead to inequality, injustice, and oppression.

Compassion. Gratitude. Awe.
These self-transcendent emotions lead to community, friendship, and romance—when we actively engage life in cooperation with others.

To understand the things that unite us with people and with nature, and also the things that divide us over and against each other, I study social character, sociocultural history, and religion.

My recent publications include:

“ Resistance and Revolution in Society Exemplified in Film Noir and Science Fiction in the Baby Boomer and Millennial-GenZ Age.” Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal, in press.

“The Necessity of Progressive Religion to Foment Progressive Change: A Frommian Argument”

and

“Social Character, Social Change, and the Social Future” (with Lauren Langman) in Erich Fromm’s Critical Theory: Hope, Humanism, and the Future. London, Bloomsbury: 2020.

My current project is “The Power of White Supremacist Emotional Illusions in a Multi-Cultural Reality” to appear in Interpreting Religion: The Meanings of Religious Belief and Practice, Vikash Singh and Erin Johnston, eds. I basically argue that white male ethnonationalism is a genuine threat to American society, but at present, Donald Trump is its incompetent prophet.

Selected Publications

Lundskow, George, Brian Phillips, and Phyllis Curtis. 2018. Torn in Contradictory Directions: Working Class Ambivalence and the Politics of Decline in a Case-Study Example. Journal of Race, Gender, and Class, forthcoming.

Lundskow, George and Lauren Langman. 2016. Gold, Glory, God, and Guns–American Character and Its Discontents. Series Edited by David Fasenfest. (New York, New York: Brill). 300 pages.

Lundskow, George, Brian Phillips, and Phyllis Curtiss. 2015. “A U.S. Automobile Plant Analysis of Workers Commitment to Their Union: The Effects of Transfer Status, Gender and Marital Status.” Race, Gender and Class 21, no. 3-4: 35-49.

2013. Lundskow, G. “Authoritarianism and Carnivalization in the 2008 Presidential Election and the Return of Right-Wing Populism.” In Lauren Langman, Jerome Braun (Ed.), Alienation and the Carnivalization of Society. New York, NY: Routledge.

2012. Lundskow, G., & Langman, L. “Down the Rabid Hole to a Tea Party.” Critical Sociology, 38(4), 589-599.

2012. Lundskow, G. “Authoritarianism and Destructiveness in the Tea Party Movement.” Critical Sociology, 38(4), 529-549.

2010. Phillips, B., Curtiss, P., & Lundskow, G. Workers’ Relationships to their Union:The Effects of Transfer Status and Race at a U.S. Automobile Plant. Social Science Journal, 47(2), 393-418.

2008. “Toyota’s Willing Stooges: The Trend of Narcissism in US Society.” New York Journal of Sociology, Vol. 1

2006. “The Concept of Choice in the Rise of Christianity: A Critique of Rational-Choice Theory.” Marx, Critical Theory, and Religion: A Critique of Rational Choice. Warren S. Goldstein, editor. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers.

2009. Chicago: Haymarket Books (paperback).

2006. “Christianity: Promises and Prospects.” World History Encyclopedia, Era 9. Jack Waskey, ed. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

2006. “The Promise Keepers.” World History Encyclopedia, Era 9. Jack Waskey, ed. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

2006. “The Transition from Paganism to Christianity.” World History Encyclopedia, Era 4.  Wilfred Bisson, ed. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

2006. “Mithraism: A Chrisitian Rival.” World History Encyclopedia, Era 4.  Wilfred Bisson, ed. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

2005. “Progressive and Oppressive Religion: Towards a Theory of Marxist Class-Cultural Spirituality.” Critical Sociology 31(1-2):210-239.