About the Book
What is sociology? This study in two volumes gives a thorough answer to this question, providing a clear critical assessment of all the more important contributions to sociological theory, and showing that the literature of sociology over the past two hundred years has been a continuous, coherent argument — constructing, deepening, and developing a new science. The book should serve as a basic textbook for courses on sociological theory and the history of social thought, but it has also been written for the individual reader who is seriously interested in the subject.
Contents
Volume 1
1. INTRODUCTION
2. BEGINNINGS
3. FOUNDATIONS
Volume 2
1. INTRODUCTION
2. THEORIES OF SOCIAL EVOLUTION
3. THE OBJECTIVE STUDY OF SOCIAL FACTS AND THE SUBJECTIVE UNDERSTANDING OF SOCIAL ACTION
4. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF SOCIETY
5. FUNCTIONALISM
6. EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY DEVELOPMENTS: A SUMMARY STATEMENT
About the Author / Editor
Ronald Fletcher was educated at Bristol University and the London School of Economics. He had taught at Bedford College and Birkbeck College of the University of London, and held chairs at the Universities of York and Essex, but left university teaching to devote himself to full-time writing. He had many published works to his credit, and contributed occasionally to leading newspapers and journals.
