Full Description
Early Modern Social Theory: Selected Interpretive Readings is a collection of essays that illuminates the course of development of modern social thought, from the Enlightenment to the 1920s. The essays focus on the most prominent social theorists, including Smith, Durkheim, Marx and Engels, and Weber. Each essay has been chosen to provide the main contributions of the theorist and the political and economic context in which he worked. The editor, a noted scholar in the field, has written clear, concise introductions to each section and provided a glossary of frequently used philosophical terms.
The collection includes two famous feminist critiques of the literature, by Rosalind Sydie and Lise Vogel, as well as papers by Tom Bottomorw on Max Weber, Anthony Giddens on the division of labour, and essays by Mandel and Trotsky on Marx.
Contents
Introduction - Murray E.G. Smith
Section One: Origins of Early Modern Social Thought
Introduction
Chapter 1: Origins of Sociology - Alan Swingewood
Chapter 2: Justice and Markets: The Ambiguous Legacy of Adam Smith - David McNally
Chapter 3: Science, Ideology and 'Economic Value' - Murray E.G. Smith
Section Two: From Utopian Socialism to Durkheim
Introduction
Chapter 4: Industrialization and the Rise of Sociological Positivism - Alan Swingewood
Chapter 5: The Supersession of Utopian Socialism - Ernest Mandel
Chapter 6: Emile Durkheim - George Ritzer
Section Three: Karl Marx
Introduction
Chapter 7: Karl Marx: Life and Social Environment - David Ashley and David M. Orenstein
Chapter 8: The Place of Marxism in History - Ernest Mandel
Chapter 9: Presenting Karl Marx - Leon Trotsky
Chapter 10: Marx: Society as Second Nature - David Frisby and Derek Sayer
Section Four: Max Weber
Introduction
Chapter 11: Max Weber: The Disenchantment of the World - Randall Collins and Michael Makowsky
Chapter 12: Max Weber on Capitalism and Rationality - Tom Bottomore
Section Five: The Woman Question in Modern Social Theory
Introduction
Chapter 13: Sex and the Sociological Fathers - Rosalind Sydie
Chapter 14: Engels: A Defective Formulation - Lise Vogel
Section Six: Theoretical Contrasts
Introduction
Chapter 15: Social Differentiation and the Division of Labour - Anthony Giddens
Chapter 16: History or Teleology? Marx versus Weber - Ellen Meiksins Wood
Appendix: Glossary of Frequently Used Philosophical Terms in Social Theory
