Leading sociologists outline the historical development of the discipline in Britain and document its continuing influence in this essential and comprehensive reference work. Spanning the Scottish enlightenment of the 18th century to the present day this Handbook maps the discipline and the British contribution.

1. Introduction; John Holmwood and John Scott 2. The Scottish Enlightenment and Scottish Social Thought c.1725-1915; John Brewer 3. Poverty Studies and Social Research; Lucinda Platt 4. Absent or Forgotten? Recovering British Social Theory; John Scott 5. Evolutionism and British Sociology; Chris Renwick 6. Religion and British Sociology: the Power and Necessity of the Spiritual; Stephen Turner 7. Sociology and Social Work: In Praise of Limestone; Ian Shaw 8. The First Sociology 'Departments'; Chris Husbands 9. British Sociology in the Inter-War Years; Baudry Rocquin 10. Building a Textbook Tradition: Sociology in Britain, 1900-1968; John Scott 11. The International Library of Sociology and Social Reconstruction and British Sociology; Jennifer Platt 12. Feminism in Sociology, Feminism as Sociology; Mary Evans 13. Exiles in British Sociology; Charles Turner 14. British Sociology in the Metropole and the Colonies, 1940s-1960s; George Steinmetz 15. Between Humanities and Science: Sociology as a Third Culture; John Eldridge 16. The History of British Sociology from the Perspective of its Archived Qualitative Sources: Ruminations and Reflections; Mike Savage 17. The Sociology of Community; Graham Crow 18. Sociology of Race, Racism, and Ethnicity: Trends, Debates, and Research Agendas; John Solomos 19. Research Methodology in Sociology; Geoff Payne 20. The Sociological Study of Religion: Arrival, Survival, Revival; Grace Davie 21. Criminology, Deviance and Sociology; Eamonn Carrabine 22. The Sociology of Work: From Industrial Sociology to Work, Employment, and the Economy; Paul Edwards 23. Sociology, Cultural Studies, and the Cultural Turn; Gregor McLennan 24. 'Class' in Britain; Wendy Bottero 25. Sociology of the Body and the Relation between Sociology and Biology; Stevi Jackson and Sue Scott 26. Sociology's Past and Futures: The Impact of External Structure, Policy and Financing; John Holmwood