While Nietzsche’s influence on philosophy, literature and art is beyond dispute, his influence on sociology is often called into question. A close textual analysis of Nietzsche’s works and those of important sociologists – Max and Alfred Weber, Ferdinand Tönnies, Rosa Mayreder – provides the first comprehensive account of their study and use of Nietzsche’s writings. Above all, Nietzsche’s critique of modernity, morality and culture are shown to have had a decisive influence on the development of sociology and the work of its leading thinkers at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th.

While Nietzsche’s influence on philosophy, literature and art is beyond dispute, his influence on sociology is often called into question. A close textual analysis of Nietzsche’s works and those of important sociologists – Max and Alfred Weber, Ferdinand Tönnies, Rosa Mayreder – provides the first comprehensive account of their study and use of Nietzsche’s writings. Above all, Nietzsche’s critique of modernity, morality and culture are shown to have had a decisive influence on the development of sociology and the work of its leading thinkers at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th.