About This Title

Written by award-winning scholar, Jonathan Turner, Theoretical Sociology: 1830 to the Present is a monumental book that offers in-depth and comprehensive coverage of both the classical and modern traditions in sociological theory.

The text is dived into three key parts: Part 1 provides detailed analyses of the theories of the classical tradition, including the works of August Comte, Herbert Spencer, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Georg Simmel, Emile Durkheim, and George Herbert Mead; Part 2 examines all of the principle theoretical traditions in sociology during the modern era, including the functional, general systems, ecological, evolutionary, conflict, exchange, symbolic interactionist, role and status, dramaturgical, phenomenological, structuralist, cultural, postmodern, European-critical, and American-style critical theories; Part 3 reviews the state of sociological theory today, including scientific elements of theory and how to overcome roadblocks that have prevented sociological theories from realizing their full explanatory power.