Talcott Parsons Reader

The editor is Professor of Sociology at the University of Cambridge. He has held professional positions in Australia, Holland, and Germany, and his research areas are medical sociology, citizenship, and social theory. He has published numerous papers and books on the social thought of Talcott Parsons. Previous publications with Blackwell include The Body and Society (1984) and The Blackwell Companion to Social Theory (1996; second edition 2000). He is the foundation editor of the journal Citizenship Studies.

"With this astute and illuminating collection, Turner demonstrates for contemporary readers why Talcott Parsons is regarded as the dominant sociological theorist of the mid-twentieth century, and one of the master narrators of modernity. Ranging from economics and global power to considerations of youth, sickness, and death, these empirically-oriented selections reveal the vast scope of Parson’s thought." – Jeffrey Alexander, University of California at Los Angeles"Parsons once described himself as an ‘incurable theorist’. This excellent collection of essays reveals a practical sociologist possessing great insight into the modern condition. Professor Turner has done a real service in reminding us of the substantive issues to which Parsons’s theoretical efforts were ultimately directed, issues which are as central to the discipline now as when Parsons was writing." – John Holmwood, University of Edinburgh

• Acknowledgments. Introduction: The Contributions of Talcott Parsons to the Study of Modernity.Part I: Religion and Modern Society:.1. Christianity and Modern Industrial Society.2. Belief, Unbelief and Disbelief.3. Religous Symbolization and Death.4. The Symbolic Environment of Modern Economies.Part II: Life, Sex and Death: .5. Illness and the Role of the Physician.6. Towards a Healthy Maturity.7. The Gift of Life and Its Reciprocation.Part III: Sociological Theory:.8. The Theoretical Development of the Sociology of Religion.9. Evolutionary Universals in Society.10. Pattern Variables Revisited.Part IV: American Society and the World Order: .11. Social Strains in America.12. The Distribution of Power in American Society.13. Order and Community in the International Social System.14. Polarization of the World and International Order.15. Youth in the Context of American Society.16. Death in American Society.17. Religion in Post-Industrial America.Bibliography of Talcott Parsons.Selected Bibliograpy (in English) on the Sociology of Talcott Parsons.Chronologyy of the Life of Talcott Parsons.Index.