Social Theory, Volume I

Roberta Garner is a professor in the Department of Sociology at DePaul University. Black Hawk Hancock is Associate Professor of Sociology at DePaul University in Chicago. He is the co-author with Roberta Garner of Changing Theories: New Directions in Sociology (2009) and author of American Allegory: Lindy Hop and the Racial Imagination (2013).

• Preface Acknowledgments Reading Theory: A General Introduction Part I: Beginnings Introduction Chapter 1: Inventing the Lens Introduction 1.1 Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)Machiavelli's The Prince (1532)Reading 1.1: Excerpts from The Prince (1532)1.2 Irving M. Zeitlin (1928-), the Enlightenment, and the Conservative ReactionReading 1.2: Excerpts from Ideology and the Development of Social Theory (1968)1.3 Edmund Burke (1729-1797)Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) Reading 1.3: Excerpts from Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)1.4 Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)Kant's "What is Enlightenment?" (1784) Reading 1.4: "What Is Enlightenment?" (1784)1.5 Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals (1887)Reading 1.5: Excerpts from On the Genealogy of Morals (1887)1.6 A word about Auguste Comte (1798-1857)Suggested ReadingsStudy Guide Part II: Classical Theory IntroductionSuggested Readings: Part II Chapter 2: Marxist Theory 2.1 Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) Marx and Engels on Capitalism and Communism: The Communist Manifesto (1848)Reading 2.1.1: Excerpts from The Communist Manifesto (1848)Marx and Engels on Ideas and Ideology: The German Ideology (written 1845-1846, published 1932) Reading 2.1.2: Excerpts from The German Ideology (written 1845-1846, published 1932) Marx's Early Writings: Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts (written 1844, published 1932)Reading 2.1.3: "Estranged Labour" from The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts (written 1844, published 1932)Marx on Capitalism, Commodity Fetishism, and Machinery and Technology: Capital (1867)Reading 2.1.4: "The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret Thereof" and "The Factory" from Capital (1867)2.2 The Legacy of Marx and EngelsStanley Aronowitz (1933-) and William DiFazio (1947-)Aronowitz and DiFazio's The Jobless Future (1994)Reading 2.2.1: Excerpts from The Jobless Future (1994)David Harvey (1935-)David Harvey's A Brief History of Neo-Liberalism (2005)Reading 2.2.2: "Why the Neoliberal Turn?" from A Brief History of Neo-Liberalism (2005)Suggested ReadingsStudy Guide Chapter 3: The Social Theory of Emile Durkheim 3.1 Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)Durkheim's Sociology: General Orientation, Early Works, and a Reflection on Crime-The Rules of Sociological Method (1895)Reading 3.1.1: The Rules of Sociological Method (1895) Durkheim's Suicide (1897) and the Concept of AnomieReading 3.1.2: Excerpts from Suicide (1897)Durkheim's The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912) and the Social Production of Concepts Reading 3.1.3: Selection from the Conclusion of The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912)3.2 The Legacy of Durkheim Robert K. Merton (1910-2003)Merton's "Social Structure and Anomie" (1938)Reading 3.2: Merton's "Social Structure and Anomie" (1938)Suggested ReadingsStudy Guide Chapter 4: The Social Theory of Max Weber Max Weber (1864-1920)Weber's Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology (1921-1922)Reading 4.1.1: Excerpts from Weber's Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology (1921-1922)Reading 4.1.2: Excerpt from "Science as a Vocation" (1919)4.2 The Legacy of Weber: George Ritzer and Theda SkocpolGeorge Ritzer (1940-)Ritzer's The McDonaldization of Society (1993)Reading 4.2.1: Excerpts from George Ritzer's The McDonaldization of Society (1993)Theda Skocpol (1947-)Skocpol, Contemporary Political Life, and the Weberian LegacyReading 4.2.2: Skocpol's "The Narrowing of Civic Life" (2004)Suggested ReadingsStudy Guide Chapter 5: The Individual in Society: Simmel and Freud 5.1 Georg Simmel (1858-1918)Simmel's Social Theory: The Philosophy of Money (1907) and "The Metropolis and Mental Life" (1903)Reading 5.1.1: "The Miser and the Spendthrift" from Simmel's The Philosophy of Money (1900) Reading 5.1.2: "The Metropolis and Mental Life" (1903)5.2 The Legacy of Simmel: David Riesman (1909-2002) Riesman's Analysis of an Emerging Character Type: The Lonely Crowd (1950)Reading 5.2: Excerpts from Riesman’s The Lonely Crowd (1950)5.3 Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)Freud on the Individual and Society: Introductory lectures on Psycho-Analysis (1915)Reading 5.3: Excerpts from Freud's Introductory lectures on Psycho-Analysis (1915)5.4 The Legacy of Freud: Juliet Mitchell and OthersFreud's Legacy: Juliet Mitchell and OthersReading 5.4: Excerpts from Juliet Mitchell's Psychoanalysis and Feminism (1974)Suggested ReadingsStudy Guide Part II: Questions and Exercises Part III: The Middle Years IntroductionSuggested Readings: Part III Chapter 6: The American Emergence IntroductionCharles Cooley (1864-1929) and George Herbert Mead (1863-1931)Cooley, Mead, and the Microsociological Tradition: Mead's Mind, Self, and Society (1934)Reading 6.1: Mead's Mind, Self, and Society (1934)6.2 The Legacy of Cooley and Mead: Patricia Adler (1951-) and Peter Adler (1951-)The Adlers and the Self in SocietyReading 6.2: Patricia and Peter Adler's "The Gloried Self" (1989)6.3 W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1983)The Social Theory of Du Bois: The Souls of Black Folk (1903)Reading 6.3.1: Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk (1903)Reading 6.3.2: Du Bois's "The Souls of White Folk," Darkwater (1920)6.4 The Chicago School: St. Clair Drake (1911-1990) and Horace Cayton (1903-1970) The Chicago School and Drake and Cayton's The Black Metropolis (1945)Reading 6.4: Drake and Cayton's The Black Metropolis (1945)6.5 The Legacy of American Sociology: William Julius Wilson (1935-)Wilson's Analysis of Institutional Segregation and Joblessness: When Work Disappears (1996)Suggested ReadingsStudy Guide Chapter 7: Reconstructed Marxism Introduction7.1 Walter Benjamin (1892-1940)Benjamin on Art and the Media: "The Work of Art in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1936)Reading 7.1: Benjamin's "The Work of Art in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1936)7.2 Adorno, Horkheimer, and Marcuse: Exiles in ParadiseAdorno and Horkheimer's Critique of Culture: The Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944) Reading 7.2: Adorno and Horkheimer's "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception" from The Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944) 7.3 Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937)Gramsci's Analysis of Hegemony and the Formation of Intellectuals: The Prison Notebooks (written 1929-1935) Reading 7.3: Excerpts from Gramsci's Prison Notebooks (1929-1935) 7.4 The Legacy of Gramsci: Jean Anyon (1941-2013)Gramsci's "Organizers of Society" and Anyon's "Executive Elite" SchoolsReading 7.4: Anyon's "Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work" (1980)Suggested ReadingsStudy Guide Chapter 8: American Hegemony and Its CriticsIntroduction Structural FunctionalismConflict TheorySymbolic Interactionism8.1: Structural Functionalism: Talcott Parsons (1902-1979)Parsons and Structural-Functional SociologyReading 8.1.1: Parsons's "An Outline of the Social System," from Theories of Society (1961) Parsons and the Sociology of Illness and MedicineReading 8.1.2: Parsons's "Illness and the Role of the Physician" (1951)8.2 Conflict Theory: Critic of Hegemony C. Wright Mills (1916-1962)Mills and Conflict Theory: The Power Elite (1956) Reading 8.2: Mills's The Power Elite (1956) 8.3 Symbolic Interactionism: An alternative to Structural Functionalism-Howard S. Becker (1928-) Symbolic Interactionism: The Social Theory of Howard S. Becker Reading 8.3: Excerpt from Becker's Outsiders (1963)8.4 Consumerism and "False Needs": The Critique of Modern Capitalist Culture-Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979)Marcuse's One Dimensional Man (1964)8.5 Structural Marxist Theory: Louis Althusser (1918-1990)Althusser and Structural Marxist TheoryReading 8.5: Excerpts from Althusser's "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" (1970)Suggested ReadingsStudy Guide Sources