Social Theory

Charles Lemert is University Professor and Andrus Professor of Social Theory Emeritus at Wesleyan University. Among his books are The Structural Lie: Small Clues to Global Things (2011), Why Niebuhr Matters (2011), Uncertain Worlds: World-Systems Analysis in Changing Times (2013, with Immanuel Wallerstein and Carlos Aguirre Rojas), and Globalization: Introduction to the End of the Known World (2015). He is at work on The Uncertain Future of Capitalism (2021, with Kristin Plys) and, among other books, Uncertainties of Time: The Past and Future TimeSpace (with Immanuel Wallerstein, posthumously).

"This anthology has helped transform social theory. Charles Lemert was a pioneer in bringing cultural diversity and globalization into dialog with classical sociology. The collection continues to break new ground today."Craig Calhoun, Arizona State University, USA"I fell in love with social theory because of this book. Charles Lemert’s reader provides an indispensable overview of the theories that shaped sociology as a discipline. His carefully curated collection leaves no stone unturned in its pursuit of a truly comprehensive guide to social theory, encompassing both well-known theorists and those whose voices were marginalized until recently. Thus, the book places the writings of Marx, Weber, Simmel, Durkheim, Freud, Mead, James, Parsons, Merton and Blumer alongside those of notable women and scholars of color, including Du Bois, Anna Julia Cooper, Jane Addams, Simone de Beauvoir, Franz Fanon, Dorothy Smith, Patricia Hill Collins, and Judith Butler. Equally impressive is the range of topics the Lemert’s book covers, from stratification, power, culture, social order, capitalism, and revolution to contemporary topics such as deviance, globalization, postmodernism, symbolic interaction, feminist theory, critical race theory, queer theory, semiotics, ethnography, ethnomethodology, neoliberalism, and world systems theory. The book was groundbreaking in its scope and inclusiveness when it was first published over thirty years ago, and it continues to set the standard for theory readers today."Waverly Duck, University of Pittsburgh, USA"This book presents a provocative, wide-angle view of the history of social theory. Well chosen selections from the new social movements as well as the classics and recent mainstream make this book a fine introduction to courses in the social sciences."Sandra Harding, University of California, Los Angeles,USA

• Part 1. 1690-1919, Modernity’s Classical AgeSocial Foundations of Modern DemocracyThe Unthinkable Two Sides of SocietySplit Lives in the Modern WorldPart 2. 1919-1945, Social Theories and World ConflictAction and Knowledge in a Troubled WorldUnavoidable DilemmasPart 3. 1945-1964, The Golden MomentThe Golden AgeDoubts and ReservationsOthers ObjectPart 4. 1963-1979, Will the Center Hold?Experiments in Renewal and Reconstruction Part 5. 1969-2001, After ModernityThe Idea of the Postmodern and Its CriticsReactions and AlternativesNew Cultural Theories After ModernityPart 6. After 2001, Global Realities in an Uncertain FutureGlobal Uncertainties Rethinking the Past That Haunts the FutureIs the Modern Order Broken?