This concise text covers both classical and contemporary social thought. It traces the major schools of thought over the past 150 years as they appear and reappear in different chapters and looks at important new voices in social theory, including 14 female theorists. The treatment of individual theories and theorists is balanced with the development of key themes and ideas about social life, including race, class and gender.

IntroductionPART ONE: THE EUROPEAN ROOTS OF SOCIOLOGICAL THEORYThe Origins of Sociological TheoryTheorizing after the French Revolution - Saint-Simon, Comte and MartineauPART TWO: CONSERVATIVE THEORIESEvolutionism and Functionalism - Spencer and SumnerSocial Realism and Functionalism Extended - DurkheimPART THREE: RADICAL THEORYRadical Anti-Capitalism - Marx and EngelsMarxism Extended - Lenin and LuxemburgPART FOUR: SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF COMPLEXITY AND FORMSocial Action and Societal Complexity - Max Weber and Marianne WeberThe Sociology of Form and Content - SimmelPART FIVE: SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF POLITICS AND ECONOMICSPolitical Sociological Theories - Pareto and MichelsEconomic Sociological Theories - Veblen and SchumpeterPART SIX: OTHER VOICES IN SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIZINGSociety and Gender - Gilman and WebbSociological Theory and Race - Du BoisSociety, Self and Mind - Cooley, Mead and FreudPART SEVEN: TWENTIETH-CENTURY FUNCTIONALISM AND BEYONDTwentieth-Century Functionalism - Parsons and MertonSystems, Structuration and Modernity - Luhmann and GiddensPART EIGHT: CRITICISM, MARXISM AND CHANGECritical Theory The Frankfurt School and HabermasMarxism since 1930Socio-Cultural Change Evolution, World Systems and RevolutionPART NINE: TRANSITIONS AND CHALLENGESMid-Twentieth-Century SociologySymbolic Interactionism - Blumer, Goffman and HochschildRational Choice and Exchange - ColemanFeminist Sociological Theory - Smith and CollinsKnowledge, Truth and Power Foucault¿s Discourse and the Feminist ResponseFinal Thoughts on Sociological Theorizing