Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
by Frank W. Elwell
Rogers State University
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I have compiled essays on four 19th century social theorists into a book
entitled The Classical Tradition to serve as an introduction to the social
theory of Malthus, Marx, Weber, and Durkheim. I have long been of the
opinion that the classics have much to offer, but social scientists tend to
spend far too much time in social theory classes focused on teaching
theory as history and not enough on contemporary developments. I
have also felt strongly that, in order to attract American students,
sociologists are getting far too social psychological. Accordingly, you will
find this book relatively short and focused on the macro-level theory of
the classics, with particular attention to ideas that have proven relevant
in understanding contemporary sociocultural systems. This book should
give undergraduate students the necessary grounding in classical
theory to give them opportunity to read and discuss the work of
contemporary practitioners; social theory courses should not be history
courses, the whole point is to understand what is going on out there.
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