Social Theory: The Multicultural, Global, and Classic Readings

by Charles Lemert

Overview

Today, as the world is threatened by anti-democratic movements, this edition adds a new early section on the origins of democratic values in 1700s—and a new concluding section that focuses on how, in the 2020s, social theorists are rethinking the world to better understand and resist the menace of anti-democracy movements.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367272661
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/28/2021
Edition description:	7th ed.
Pages:	674
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Charles Lemert is University Professor and Andrus Professor of Social Theory Emeritus at Wesleyan University. Among his books are The Structural Lie: Small Clues to Global Things (2011), Why Niebuhr Matters (2011), Uncertain Worlds: World-Systems Analysis in Changing Times (2013, with Immanuel Wallerstein and Carlos Aguirre Rojas), and Globalization: Introduction to the End of the Known World (2015). He is at work on The Uncertain Future of Capitalism (2021, with Kristin Plys) and, among other books, Uncertainties of Time: The Past and Future TimeSpace (with Immanuel Wallerstein, posthumously).

Table of Contents

Part 1. 1690-1919, Modernity’s Classical Age

Social Foundations of Modern Democracy

The Unthinkable Two Sides of Society

Split Lives in the Modern World

Part 2. 1919-1945, Social Theories and World Conflict

Action and Knowledge in a Troubled World

Unavoidable Dilemmas

Part 3. 1945-1964, The Golden Moment

The Golden Age

Doubts and Reservations

Others Object

Part 4. 1963-1979, Will the Center Hold?

Experiments in Renewal and Reconstruction

Part 5. 1969-2001, After Modernity

The Idea of the Postmodern and Its Critics

Reactions and Alternatives

New Cultural Theories After Modernity

Part 6. After 2001, Global Realities in an Uncertain Future

Global Uncertainties

Rethinking the Past That Haunts the Future

Is the Modern Order Broken?

Editorial Reviews

"This anthology has helped transform social theory. Charles Lemert was a pioneer in bringing cultural diversity and globalization into dialog with classical sociology. The collection continues to break new ground today."

 

Craig Calhoun, Arizona State University, USA

 

"I fell in love with social theory because of this book. Charles Lemert’s reader provides an indispensable overview of the theories that shaped sociology as a discipline. His carefully curated collection leaves no stone unturned in its pursuit of a truly comprehensive guide to social theory, encompassing both well-known theorists and those whose voices were marginalized until recently. Thus, the book places the writings of Marx, Weber, Simmel, Durkheim, Freud, Mead, James, Parsons, Merton and Blumer alongside those of notable women and scholars of color, including Du Bois, Anna Julia Cooper, Jane Addams, Simone de Beauvoir, Franz Fanon, Dorothy Smith, Patricia Hill Collins, and Judith Butler. Equally impressive is the range of topics the Lemert’s book covers, from stratification, power, culture, social order, capitalism, and revolution to contemporary topics such as deviance, globalization, postmodernism, symbolic interaction, feminist theory, critical race theory, queer theory, semiotics, ethnography, ethnomethodology, neoliberalism, and world'systems theory. The book was groundbreaking in its scope and inclusiveness when it was first published over thirty years ago, and it continues to set the standard for theory readers today."

Waverly Duck, University of Pittsburgh, USA

"This book presents a provocative, wide-angle view of the history of social theory. Well chosen selections from the new social movements as well as the classics and recent mainstream make this book a fine introduction to courses in the social sciences."

Sandra Harding, University of California, Los Angeles,USA

From the Publisher