Bert N. Adams (Ph.D., University of North Carolina) is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He is a former President and currently a Fellow of the National Council on Family Relations. He has taught sociological theory extensively, both in East Africa and at the University of Wisconsin, and also teaches and writes on the sociology of the family. He is the author of several books, including the introductory textbook THE FAMILY: A SOCIOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION, 5TH EDITION (Harcourt Brace 1995) and SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY (Pine Forge Press 2001). With David M. Klein, he served as co-editor of the Understanding Families Series with Sage, which produced 20 books between 1995 and 2002. He is well connected with family sociologists throughout the world. R. A. Sydie has been professor of sociology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton for the past 30 years and is the current chair of the department of sociology. Her research interests include sociological theory, art and culture, and gender studies. Professor Sydie is the author of Natural Women, Cultured Men. Her latest research project involves a historical examination of sociological work on love and eroticism.

"This is an eminently lucid, readable, and comprehensive survey of classical sociological theory. Adams and Sydie provide thoughtful summaries and assessments of the works of dozens of social thinkers….By significantly broadening the cannon and devoting special attention to call, gender, and race, they bring theory up to date even as they take seriously the rich legacy of the past. I have never read a more exciting introduction to the theories of our discipline."

• PrefaceA Note to StudentsSECTION I. THE EUROPEAN ROOTS OF SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY1. The Origins of Sociological TheoryThe Contours of Sociological TheoryThe Philosophical Precursors of SociologyFinal Thoughts on the Philosophical PrecursorsReferences2. Theorizing After the RevolutionClaude-Henri, Comte de Saint-Simon (1760-1825)Auguste Comte (1798-1857)Harriet Martineau (1802-1876)Final ThoughtsReferencesSECTION II. CONSERVATIVE THEORIES3. Evolutionism and FunctionalismHerbert Spencer (1820-1903)William Graham Sumner (1840-1910)Final ThoughtsReferences4. Society as Sui GenerisEmile Durkheim (1858-1917)Final ThoughtsReferencesSECTION III. RADICAL THEORY5. Radical AnticapitalismKarl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)Final ThoughtsReferences6. Marxism ExtendedV.I. Lenin (1870-1924)Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919)Final ThoughtsReferencesSECTION IV. SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF COMPLEXITY AND FORM7. Social Action and Social ComplexityMax Weber (1864-1920) and Marianne Weber (1870-1954)Final ThoughtsReferences8. The Sociology of Form and ContentGeorg Simmel (1858-1918)Final ThoughtsReferencesSECTION V. SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF POLITICS AND ECONOMICS9. Political Sociological TheoriesVilfredo Pareto (1848-1923)Robert Michels (1876-1936)Final ThoughtsReferences10. Economic Sociological TheoriesThorstein Veblen, (1857-1929)Joseph Schumpeter, (1883-1950)Final ThoughtsReferencesSECTION VI. OTHER VOICES IN SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIZING11. Society and GenderCharlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935)Beatrice Potter Webb (1858-1943)Final ThoughtsReferences12. Sociological Theory and RaceW.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963)Final ThoughtsReferences13. Society, Self, and MindCharles Horton Cooley (1864-1929)George Herbert Mead (1863-1931)Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)Final ThoughtsReferences14. Final Thoughts on Classical Sociological TheoryNineteenth-Century Sociological TheoryEarly Twentieth-Century Sociological TheoryOther Theoretical IssuesSociological Theory by the 1930sReferencesCreditsIndex