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Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber created many of the seminal concepts and methods at
the heart of sociology, economics, political science, anthropology, and social psychology.
Collectively, they wrote their major works between the middle of the 19th and early 20th
centuries, yet their ideas and methods still largely define what social scientists think about,
and how they analyze societal phenomena.
But what, in fact, have social scientists in the late 20th century been saying about the great masters’s concepts, methods, and findings? How have revolutionary cultural and social events such as the“Sixties,” the end of the Cold War, the demise of the Soviet Union, the rise of feminism, and the computer revolution affected the way social investigators apply and analyze Marx, Durkheim and Weber? And have these modern applications and analyses tended to support or weaken the classical sociological theories? Answers to these and related questions are found in this anthology, which assembles for the first time a rich collection of articles by contemporary sociologists, economists, political scientists, anthropologists, and social psychologists. Together, the 31 selections clearly show how some of the world’s leading social scientists apply and analyze concepts such as class, anomie, bureaucracy, community, rationality, representations, capitalism, charisma, inequality, and religious ritual, which are at the heart of the writings of Marx, Durkheim, and Weber. The discussion and worship of Durkheim, Marx, Weber . . . seems in fact to be enough to satisfy the discipline's need for a collective memory. — Herbert J. Gans . . . insofar as they [undergraduate students] understand Durkheim, Marx, and Weber they truly share part of the conscience collective of professional sociology. . . . the writings of Marx, Weber, . . . Durkheim . . . may be examined singly or in various combinations to arrive at an understanding of the invariant structures of modern, industrial, capitalistic society and its value presuppositions. — Arthur J. Vidich Copyright© 1998 by Richard Altschuler & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. ISBN 1-884092-54-3 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 97-78374 Cover Design: Josh Garfield | Testimonials | How to Contact Us | | Gordian Knot Books | | Richard Altschuler & Associates | |