Sociological Amnesia

Alex Law is Professor of Sociology at Abertay University, UK. He is the author of Social Theory for Today: Making Sense of Social Worlds, and Key Concepts in Classical Social Theory. Eric Royal Lybeck is completing his doctoral research in the Department of Sociology at University of Cambridge, UK.

'Mark Twain said that a classic is something that everybody wants to have read but nobody actually wants to read. Sociological Amnesia shows that many of the forgotten sociological classics are books one would certainly want to read eagerly. Recovering a diverse array of compelling authors from posterity’s shadows, this book opens up vibrant new vistas for future sociological thinking.' David Inglis, University of Exeter, UK 'This book is a treasure trove of lost jewels. An international team of contributors present a range of social theorists - men and women from three continents - whose work has been forgotten or neglected but retains its power and relevance. The book deserves a place on every sociologist's bookshelf.' John Scott, University of Copenhagen, Denmark and University of Exeter, UK 'In the history of sociology we know more about the top 1% than the rest. The authors of this collection argue for upgrading at least twelve sociologists by offering explanations and complaints for their unjustified neglect. Readers of Law’s and Lybeck’s Sociological Amnesia are provided with insightful, detailed and combative pleas and detached analysis of interesting cases.' Christian Fleck, University of Graz, Austria, author of A Transatlantic History of the Social Sciences‘C’est un ouvrage très intéressant pour les historiens de la sociologie qui souhaitent (re)découvrir de nou-velles figures intellectuelles, pour ceux qui cherchent de nou-veaux terrains d’enquête ainsi que pour les épistémologues de notre discipline.’ Bulletin d’histoire de la sociologie‘Law and Lybeck’s excellent study of the "sociological amnesia" that leaves once prominent and influential thinkers on the sidelines of our disciplinary memory addresses precisely these larger issues while offering us a number of first-rate case studies of sociologists and intellectuals we can usefully reconsider.’ – Canadian Journal of Sociology

• Sociological Amnesia: An Introduction, 1. British Sociology and Raymond Aron, 2. Two Men, Two Books, Many Disciplines: Robert N. Bellah, Clifford Geertz, and the Making of Iconic Cultural Objects, 3. Erich Fromm: Studies in Social Character, 4. From Literature to Sociology: The Shock of Celine’s Literary Style and Viola Klein’s Attempt to Understand it (With a Little Help from Karl Mannheim), 5. Olive Schreiner, Sociology and the Company she Kept, 6. Lucien Goldmann's Key Sociological Problems and his Critical Heritage: From the Hidden God to the Hidden Class, 7. G.D.H. Cole: Sociology, Politics, Empowerment and ‘How to be Socially Good’, 8. Social Monads, Not Social Facts: Gabriel Tarde’s Tool for Sociological Analysis, 9. Alasdair MacIntyre’s Lost Sociology, 10. Castoriadis and Social Theory: From Marginalization to Canonization to Re-Radicalization, 11. Norbert Elias: Sociological Amnesia and ‘The Most Important Thinker You Have Never Heard Of’’