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The Classical Tradition in Sociology
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The Classical Tradition in Sociology
The American Tradition

Four Volume Set
Edited by:

December 1997 | 1 664 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
The Classical Tradition in Sociology: The American Tradition is a comprehensive guide and reassessment of the American tradition from the 18th century to today: from Franklin to Etzioni. Unparalleled in scope, it demonstrates that Americans have left an idelible mark on sociological theory and method: from the American Enlightenment, through to the monumental contributions of the Chicago School, Parsons, Goffman, Functionalism, Garfinkel, and radical-critical theory. Volume 1 considers the emergence of American sociology, and includes the key writings of the American Enlightenment: from Franklin to Paine, de TocquevilleÆs seminal critical contribution and the works of Giddings, Small, Dewey, and the American pragmatists. One finds here an indispensable survey of the roots of American sociology. Volume 2 examines what is commonly known as the Classical Tradition (1890-1930). It covers the path-breaking work of the Chicago School and the seminal contributions of Cooley, Park, Mead, and Veblen. The self-sustaining confidence and early maturity of the American tradition, which led to methodological developments and forms of analysis that were quite different from their European counterparts, shine out. Volume 3 considers American sociology from the 1930s to the 1960s: the period from Grand Theory to Symbolic Interactionism. It includes contributions from Parsons, Sorokin, Merton, Lazersfeld, Bales, the Small-Group Theorists, the Functionalists, the Systems Theorists, and the Symbolic Interactionists. The energy and inquisitive spirit of American writers is cogently revealed. Volume 4 addresses American sociology from 1960 to 1995: the period that stretches from post-industrialism to post-modernism. It includes selections from Garfinkel and the ethnomethodologists, Goffman, Bell and post-industrial theorists, radical-critical theory, Blalock and causal theory, Etxioni and communitarianism, and post-modernism. The fertility and inventiveness of recent American sociology is demonstrated, and the editor looks forward to the methodological and theoretical innovations of the next century. The substantial introduction to the whole work, as well as shorter introductions to each of the themed selections of writings are provided by the editor, Jeffrey C. Alexander. Learned and all-encompassing in its vision and achievement, The Classical Tradition in Sociology: The American Tradition provides the reader with a distillation of over two centuries of American sociological endeavor. Full account is taken of the reference needs of students as well as of academics. The Classical Tradition in Sociology is printed on acid-free paper in 244mm X 156mm format. Each volume, of a uniform 416 pages, is bound to the highest standards; finished with head and tail bands, colored endpapers, and cased in unlined chipboards. The volumes are blocked on the front and on the spine, and the blocking includes a foil panel. Each set is presented in a louvered slipcase that is also blocked over a foil panel. The volumes are not available separately.

 
VOLUME I: THE EMERGENCE OF AMERICAN SOCIOLOGY: I - FROM THE ENLIGHTENMENT TO THE FOUNDING FATHERS (1750-1900)
 
I: THE AMERICAN ENLIGHTENMENT
L Schneider
On the Fronteirs of Sociology and History
Observations on Evolutionary Development and Unanticipated Consequences

 
Peter Gay
The American Enlightenment
C J Richard
The Founders and the Classics
Greece, Rome and the American Enlightenment

 
 
II: DE TOCQUEVILLE AND AMERICAN DISTINCTIVENESS
TRANSCENDENTALISTS

 
W Mathie
God, Woman, and Morality
The Democratic Family in the New Political Science of Alexis de Tocqueville

 
R J Boesche
The Strange Liberalism of Alexis de Tocqueville
H Brogan
Pauperism and Democracy
Alexis de Tocqueville and Nassau Senior

 
 
III: THE EMERGENCE OF AMERICAN SOCIOLOGY
W E B DuBois
Introduction, from The Philadelphia Negro
M Bulmer
W E B DuBois as a Social Investigator
The Philadelphia Negro 1899

 
A Giddings
Social Self-Control
Ross
The Causes of Race Superiority
B Lecuyer and A R Oberschall
Sociology
The Early History of Social Research

 
Albion Small
Fifty Years of Sociology in the United States - 1865 - 1915
C Camic and Y Xie
The Statistical Turn in American Social Science
Columbia University, 1890 to 1915

 
Robert E Faris
American Sociology at the Turn of the Century
H Odum
American Sociology
 
VOLUME II: THE EMERGENCE OF AMERICAN SOCIOLOGY: II - THE CLASSICAL TRADITION (1900-1940)
Jeffrey C Alexander
Editor's Introduction
 
I: THE CHICAGO SCHOOL AND PRAGMATISM
G Dewey
The Work of George Mead
M Bulmer
The Chicago School of Sociology
What Made It a `School'?

 
B M Fisher and A L Strauss
George Herbert Mead and the Chicago Tradition of Sociology
Parts I and II

 
J Carey
Sociology and Public Affairs
The Chicago School

 
B M Fisher and A L Strauss
The Chicago Tradition
Thomas, Park and their Successors

 
Dmitri Shalin
Pragmatism and Social Interactionisms
G H Mead
The Self as Social Structure
C H Cooley
The Self as Sentiment and Relection
C H Cooley
The Looking Glass Self
M Bulmer
On Thomas and Znaniecki's `The Polish Peasant'
Louise Wirth
Urbanism as a Way of Life
Louise Wirth
The Ghetto
M Bulmer
The Development of Field Research Methods
 
II: OTHER AMERICAS: SOCIOLOGY OUTSIDE CHICAGO
R R Dynes
Sociology as a Religious Movement
D W Rossides
William Graham Sumner
D W Rossides
Lester F Ward
H Kuklick
A Scientific Revolution
Sociological Theory in the United States, 1930 - 1945

 
L L Bernard and J Bernard
Origins of American Sociology
The Social Science Movement in the United States

 
G A Fine
The Social Construction of Style
Thorstein Veblen's The Theory of the Leisure Class as Contested Text

 
Jennifer Platt
Scientism, from A History of Sociological Research Methods in America
 
VOLUME III: AMERICAN SOCIOLOGY IN THE 20TH CENTURY: I - FROM PRAGMATISM TO FUNCTIONALISM AND QUANTITATIVE SOCIOLOGY (1930 - 1960)
Jeffrey C Alexander
Editor's Introduction
 
I: SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM: FROM MEAD TO BLUMER
H Blumer
The Methodological Position of Symbolic Interactionism
Paul Colomy and J David Brown
Elaboration, Revision, Polemic and Progress in the Second Chicago School
Gary Alan Fine
The Sad Demise, Mysterious Disappearance, and Glorious Triumph of Symbolic Interaction
Shibutani
Herbert Blumer's Contribution to Twentieth Century Sociology
J D Lewis
The Classic American Pragmatists as Forerunners to Symbolic Interactionism
Anselm Strauss
Everett Hughes
Sociology's Mission

 
J M Chaupolie
Everett Hughes and the Development of Fieldwork in Sociology
H Blumer
Social Problems as Collective Behavior
Scott and Lyman
Accounts
 
II: TALCOTT PARSONS: SOCIAL ACTION; FUNCTIONALISM; SYSTEMS THEORY
Jeffrey C Alexander
Parsons's Structure
C Camic
Structure after 50 years
The Anatomy of a Charter

 
R Dahrendorf
Out of Utopia
 
III: LAZARSFELD AND MERTON: THEORIES OF THE MIDDLE RANGE
Charles Crothers
Merton as a Discipline Builder
Jennifer Platt
Out of Utopia
 
IV: OTHER MICRO-APPROACHES
Robert F Bales
Small Group Theory and Research
G Homans
Bringing Men Back In
D Wrong
The Oversocialized Conception of Man in Modern Sociology
E Shils and M Janowitz
Cohesion and Disintegration in the Wehrmact in World War II
R Dubin
Deviant Behaviour and Social Structure
A Silver
The Curious Importance of Small Groups in American Sociology
Merton and Kitt
Contributions to the Theory of Reference Group Behavior
 
V ORGANIZATIONAL AND POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY
Alvin Gouldner
Metaphysical Pathos and the Theory of Bureaucracy
 
VOLUME IV: AMERICAN SOCIOLOGY IN THE 20TH CENTURY: II (1960 - )
Jeffrey C Alexander
Editor's Introduction
 
I: MAJOR MACRO-SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACHES
 
MODERNIZATION AND SOCIAL DIFFERENTIATION: FROM PARSONS TO SMELSER AND NEO-FUNCTIONALSIM
H P Muller
Social Differentiation and Organic Solidarity
The Division of Labor Revisited, Sociological Forum

 
M A Basle
Economy and Society: A Reminder Stressing the Importance of the Contribution by T Parsons and N Smelser
D Sciulli and D Gerstein
Social Theory and Talcott Parsons in the 1980s
B Turner and R Holton
Against Nostalgia
 
ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY AND NEO-INSTITUTIONALISM
M Waters
Bell and Post-Industrial Theory
R Tilman and J L Simich
On the Use and Abuse of Thorstein Veblen in Modern American Sociology II
Daniel Bell and the `Utopianizing' of Veblen's Contribution and its Integration by Robert Merton and C W Mills

 
Meyer and Rowan
Institutionalization Organizations
Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony

 
 
FROM CRITICAL THEORY TO COMMUNATARIANISM
D Kellner
Critical Theory and the Crisis of Social Theory
 
HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE SOCIOLOGY: FROM MOORE TO SKOCPOL
T Skocpol
Vision and Method in Historical Sociology
 
II: MAJOR MICRO-SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACHES
L Langsdorf
Treating Method and Form as Phenomena
An Appreciation of Garfinkel's Phenomenology of Social Action

 
P Manning
Drama as Life
The Significance of Goffman's Changing Use of the Theatrical Metaphor

 
R J Holton
Rational Choice Theory in Sociology
 
III: NEW TRENDS
R Champagne
Feminism, Essentialism, and Historical Context
A Stein and K Plummer
I Can't Even Think Straight
Queer Theory and the Missing Sexual Revolution in Sociology

 
L J Nicholson and S Seidman
Social Postmodernism
Beyond Identity Politics

 
J C Alexander
The Promise of a Cultural Sociology
Technological Discourse and the Sacred and Profane Information Machine

 

`In presenting this monumental work , Professors Alexander, Boudon and Cherkaoui have done magnificent service not only for sociology but for the intellectual world in general. The Classical Tradition in Sociology stands unmatched as the most intelligent, comprehensive, balanced, and definitive treatment of the history of sociology right up to the present. I am already urging people to read it as an essential ingredient in their ongoing education, and I am confident that I will continue to deliver this message for many years to come' - Neil J Smelser, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford

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