The Development of Sociological Theory
Readings from the Enlightenment to the Present
Social Theory
The author is a proud sponsor of the 2020 SAGE Keith Roberts Teaching Innovations Award—enabling graduate students and early career faculty to attend the annual ASA pre-conference teaching and learning workshop.
The Development of Sociological Theory: Readings from the Enlightenment to the Present brings together excerpts from 96 original works by important theorists, from the roots of sociological thought through the contemporary and post-modern periods. Noted theory scholar Javier Treviño has created an anthology with breadth and variety, while staying mainly within theoretical schools and traditions that are sociological. The selections have been selected and edited for classroom use and are presented according to two orderings—as a rough chronology that illustrates the historical development of theoretical knowledge in sociology and as a typology of systems of sociological theorizing for more methodical consideration.
“This comprehensive selection makes a powerful case for the importance of the sociological imagination. Treviño shows how theorists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries explored the ideas of community, power, culture, race, and gender…[and] how systems, networks, and information flows are seen as driving a transition from modernity to an emerging late modern or postmodern society.”
—John Scott, University of Essex (UK) and University of Copenhagen
"Treviño has succeeded in the quite difficult task of producing an anthology that includes all the major authors and currents of sociological theory. His introductions to the readings present them clearly and concisely.”
—Sandro Segre, University of Genoa, Italy
“A. Javier Treviño’s erudition, thoughtfulness, and flair for pedagogy shine through in every aspect of this impressive, well-crafted volume: in its overall architecture, which neatly encompasses both historical chronology and thematics; in its judicious selection of texts, which span more than two centuries of the sociological tradition; in its careful textual abridgements, which allow essential arguments and insights to be easily accessible; and in its clear, elegant, and well-informed essays at the start of each section.”
—Mustafa Emirbayer, University of Wisconsin–Madison
This book is fantastic. The idea of putting together pieces of classic sociological text in an order that make sense was quite genius. Since I believe there is only one way of thinking sociologically, I have always insisted that classical thinkers are more similar to each other than different. One may think that Marx and Weber are talking about two different things from two distinct points of view, however reading this books chapter in order, you would find out that they are quite similar.