Critical Assessments of Leading Sociologists – serie

George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) is widely seen as the father of symbolic interactionism. He is celebrated as probably the most original and important American sociologist of the twentieth century. This collection of critical assessments shows why Mead is important for symbolic interactionism. But it also traces Mead's influence in social behaviourism and theories of the mind. The articles are gathered together in four sections: section one considers the Biography and Intellectual context of Mead's work, special attention is paid to Mead's links with Pragmatism, Social Reform, the `Chicago School', social behavioursm and symbolic interactionism. Section two, is devoted to Mead and symbolic interactionism. Section three, focuses on the links between Mead and behaviourism. The final section contains articles exploring Mead's theory of the mind, which many now see as the most important area of his work.

Talcott Parsons (1904-79) is widely regarded as one of the most important sociologists of the twentieth century. These four volumes provide an essential guide to the thought and work of this major sociologist.

This set of six volumes provide a full picture of the School by examining the important developments that have occured since the deaths of the original core of Frankfurt scholars. In particular the work of Jurgen Habermas is fully assessed

Georg Simmel predicted that he would have no followers after his death. However he is now widely recognized as the father of the sociology of Modernity. His ideas on the metropolis, consumer culture, social space and aesthetics are at the crux of contemporary debate in sociology. This collection brings together the essential secondary literature on Simmel. It is selected and edited by David Frisby - a scholar who has perhaps done more than anyone else to rehabilitate Simmel's reputation in the English speaking world. What emerges is the most concise yet comprehensive view of this astonishingly prescient and penetrating sociologist. The volumes will be of interest to graduate students and anyone with a serious interest in Simmel.

The Chicago School was the first major school of sociology in the USA, dominating the field for the first thirty-five years of the twentieth century. Drawing upon the nineteenth century British social survey methods of Charles Booth and others, and influenced by continental European social theorists, the Chicago School moved in an ethnographic direction as they studied immigrant communities , neighbourhood zones and leisure life. In addition the School was central as a training centre for students, going on to train generations of sociologists, and its impact has been enormous throughout this century, influencing debates about race relations and crime. Starting with the earliest debates within Northern American sociology, Pragmatic philosophy, and the Chicago School itself, this set provides key readings from contemporary journals and scholarly publications, which situate the School, give access to major documents through the edited selections of key studies and texts, and help the reader to understand the critical development of the tradition.

Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) was a major figure in the early development of sociology, famous for work which likened society to an organism and analysed it in evolutionary terms. In this context he was contributing to evolutionary theory before as well as after Darwin and argued consistently that society would be perfected through the operation of the principle that every man should be left free to do what he would as long as he did not interfere with another man's freedom.Spencer's work has been neglected in recent years, but its indirect influence lives on both in libertarian political thought and in the discipline of sociology itself particularly through the work of Durkheim who was heavily influenced by Spencer. This major set traces that influence from the reaction of Spencer's contemporaries to the present day. Contributions come from across the social science disciplines and are often taken from difficult to access contemporary sources.

This third set of Critical Assessments on the foremost French Sociologist takes as its main focus writings since 1990. The articles have been selected by a team of international scholars from the British School for Durkheimian Studies. Each specialist has written a new introduction to set their chosen area in its appropriate historical and intellectual context. The overall result is a broad, authoritative selection of articles which detail changes in interpreting Durkheim since the 1920s.

A companion volume to Max Weber: Critical Assessments (1), Max Weber: Critical Assessments (2) presents a representative selection of the scholarship which analyses Weber's political, legal, economic and historical work in greater detail, and conforms to a wider debate about the relevance of Weber's historical and political thought to contemporary concerns.The sheer scale of new Weber scholarship means that a completely new selection of 80 articles has been published. This set of critical assessments concentrates on key themes in the re-thinking of Weber, dealing more closely with the political, legal, economic and historical components of his work.