Unrivalled in scope and depth, and prepared by one of the acknowledged giants of contemporary social theory, this boxed set provides a magisterial review of the central canons, discourses and research programmes in social theory. The reader is provided with a route-map through the complex terrain of social theory from classical to contemporary times. Alexander distils an amazingly rich set of resources into eight exceptional volumes. For the specialist who does not have all of these materials to hand, the set offers an incisive and invaluable research aid. For the non-specialist, the volumes constitute an elegant and reliable entry into the heart of what is important in social theory. For specialist and non-specialist alike, Alexander's choices will be a fascinating insight into his view of the essentials in the Western tradition of social theory. The collection begins with a specially prepared essay by Alexander which precludes a view of social theory as a `glorious' onward march. Instead, he concentrates on the relativity of social theory, a relativity that derives from the status of sociology as a human science rather than a science of nature. The Introduction provides the reader with a guide through the main structural shifts in social theory. It demonstrates why the classics are significant and elucidates their contemporary relevance; and indicates the limitations of the classical tradition, tracing where these limitations have borne fruit in contemporary research initiatives and achievements. Alexander identifies central canons in sociological research and lays the groundwork for framing each. Urbane, shrewd and compelling, Alexander's mapping of the canons will inspire debate in sociology and offers an exciting new reorientation for reading and understanding social theory.

Table of Contents:
VOLUME ONE: THE SOCIOLOGICAL TRADTIONS: CANONS AND CRITICAL DISCOURSES PART ONE: CANONS: THE GREAT TRADITIONS Alienated Labor - Karl Marx On the Production of Consciousness - Karl Marx Bourgeoisa and Proletarians - Karl Marx and Frederick Engels Base and Superstructure - Karl Marx The Later Theory of Capitalism and Class Domination - Karl Marx The Indeterminacy of Historical Causation - Karl Marx Confucianism and Puritanism - Max Weber Religious Rejections of the World and Their Directions - Max Weber Class, Status and Party - Max Weber Formal Organization - Max Weber The Types of Legitimate Political Authority - Max Weber Historical Emergence of Citizenship - Max Weber Structural Differentiation and the Rational Modern Conscience - Emile Durkheim Rules for the Observation of Social Facts - Emile Durkheim Pathologies of Modernity - Emile Durkheim The Social Causes of Suicide VOLUME TWO PART ONE: CANONS: THE GREAT TRADITIONS (continued) Individualism and the Intellectuals - Emile Durkheim The Religious Theory of Modernity - Emile Durkheim Definition of Socialism - Emile Durkheim PART TWO: CANONS: THE LITTLE TRADITIONS Confict as Integrative - Georg Simmel The Triad - Georg Simmel Culture and Crisis - Georg Simmel The Metropolis and Mental Life - Georg Simmel Interaction and Meaning - George Herbert Mead The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life - Erving Goffman Introduction to Frame Analysis - Erving Goffman The Interaction Order - Erving Goffman Communication and Moral Action in Modern Societies - John Dewey Choosing among Projects of Action - Alfred Schutz Studies of the Routine Grounds of Everyday Activities - Harold Garfinkel VOLUME THREE PART TWO: CANONS: THE LITTLE TRADTIONS (continued) Society as Rational Exchange - James S Coleman Social Behavior as Exchange - George C Homans On Institutions and Social Evolution - Talcott Parsons The Superego and the Theory of Social Systems - Talcott Parsons Integration and Institutionalization in the Social System - Talcott Parsons The Concept of Society - Talcott Parsons The Components and Their Interrelations On the Concept of Political Power - Talcott Parsons Double Interchanges in Economy and Society - Talcott Parsons and Neil J Smelser PART THREE: CRITICAL DISCOURSES The Residual Category of Marxism - Frederick Engels Economic Determinism Only in the Last Instance The Rustic Craftsmanship of the Economists and the Organization of Revolutionaries - V I Lenin Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat - Georg Luk[ac]acs The Study of Philosophy - Antonio Gramsci The Problem of Mediations and Auxiliary Disciplines - Jean-Paul Sartre Contradiction and Overdetermination - Louis Althusser Notes for an Investigation Alienation and Property - Shlomo Avineri Beyond Economism to Culture and Legitimation - J[um]urgen Habermas Charisma, Order and Status - Edward Shils VOLUME FOUR PART THREE: CRITICAL DISCOURSES (continued) Inequality and Social Structure - Reinhard Bendix A Comparison of Marx and Weber Domination as the Core of Weber′s Political Sociology - Guenther Roth The Dialectical Development of the Rationalism of World Mastery - Wolfgang Schluchter Religion and Science Nietzsche and Weber - Ralph Schroeder Two `Prophets′ of the Modern World Continuities in the Study of Social Conflict - Lewis A Coser Durkheim′s Early Works - Anthony Giddens Durkheim and History - Robert N Bellah Rethinking Durkheim′s Intellectual Development - Jeffery C Alexander On the Complex Origins of a Cultural Sociology The Rational Structure of the Linguistication of the Sacred - J[um]urgen Habermas Manifest and Latent Functions - Robert K Merton Some Remarks on `The Social System′ - David Lockwood The Oversocialized Conception of Man in Modern Sociology - Dennis H Wrong Formal and Substantive Voluntarism in the Work of Talcott Parsons - Jeffrey C Alexander A Theoretical and Ideological Reinterpretation The Debate with Parsons - Hans Joas Rehistoricizing the Convergence Thesis Against Nostalgia - Robert J Holton and Bryan S Turner Talcott Parsons and a Sociology for the Modern World `Modernizing′ Eastern Europe - Klaus M[um]uller Theoretical Problems and Political Dilemmas VOLUME FIVE PART ONE: RESEARCH PROGRAMS The Capitalist State - Ralph Miliband Reply to Nicos Poulantzas The Capitalist State - Nicos Poulantzas A Reply to Miliband and Laclau Late Capitalism beyond Economism - Paul A Baran and Paul M Sweezy The Wider Reproduction of Labor Power - Andr[ac]e Gorz The Model of Civilization A Final Note on Skill - Harry Braverman Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes towards an Investigation) - Louis Althusser The Rational Culture of Critical-Class Discourse - Alvin W Gouldner Classes and Classifications - Pierre Bourdieu Shop Floor Culture, Masculinity and the Wage Form - Paul Willis Organizational Oligarchies - Robert Michels Why Democracy in the ITU? - Seymour Lipset, Trow and Coleman Foundations of the Theory of Organization - Philip Selznick The New Institutionalism in Organization Theory - Walter W Powell and Paul J DiMaggio The Higher Circles - C Wright Mills VOLUME SIX PART ONE: RESEARCH PROGRAMS (continued) Citizenship and Social Class - T H Marshall Social Class, Political Class, Ruling Class - Raymond Aron Elections - Seymour Martin Lipset The Expression of the Democratic Class Struggle Citizenship and the Place of the Public Sphere - Margaret R Somers Law, Community and Political Culture in the Transition to Democracy Social Structure and Anomie - Robert K Merton On the Sociology of Deviance - Kai T Erikson Civil Religion in America - Robert N Bellah Secular Defilement - Mary Douglas Deep Play - Clifford Geertz Notes on the Balinese Cockfight Liminality and Communitas - Victor W Turner From Mobs to Memorials - Viviana A Zelizer The Sacrulization of Child Life Culture and Political Crisis - Jeffrey C Alexander `Watergate′ and Durkheimian Sociology The Urban Community as a Spatial Pattern and a Moral Order - Robert E Park The Social Self - The Meaning of `I′ - Charles Horton Cooley Social Movements - Herbert Blumer Good People and Dirty Work - Everett C Hughes VOLUME SEVEN PART ONE: RESEARCH PROGRAMS (continued) Becoming a Marihuana User - Howard S Becker Street Etiquette and Street Wisdom - Elijah Anderson Making Music Together - Alfred Sch[um]utz A Study in Social Relationship Passing and the Managed Achievement of Sex Status in an `Intersexed′ Person - Harold Garfinkel A Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation - Harvey Sacks, Emanuel A Schegloff and Gail Jefferson Rational Choice and Solidarity - Michael Hechter Science and Democratic Social Structure - Robert K Merton Some Principles of Stratification - Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E Moore The Functional Prerequisites of a Society - D F Aberle et al The Sociology of the Deviant Act - Albert K Cohen Anomie Theory and beyond Religious Evolution - Robert N Bellah Structural Differentiation in Spinning - Neil J Smelser Toward a Dualistic Theory of Identification - Philip E Slater Values, Norms and Informed Consent - Bernard Barber The Fundamental Characteristics of the Political Systems and the Social Conditions of Their Development - S N Eisenstadt The Mass News Media in Systemic, Historical and Comparative Perspective - Jeffrey C Alexander The Truly Disadvantaged - William Julius Wilson VOLUME EIGHT PART ONE: RESEARCH PROGRAMS (continued) Status Conflict as the Basis of Racial Segregation - Douglas S Massey and Nancy A Denton American Dionysus - Orlando Patterson Images of Afro-American Men at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century Family Structure and Feminine Personality - Nancy Chodorow Is Female to Male as Nature Is to Culture? - Sherry B Ortner Engels Revisited - Karen Sacks Women, the Organization of Production, and Private Property Interaction - Pamela M Fishman The Work Women Do Imitation and Gender Insubordination - Judith Butler Tinkerbells and Pinups - Cynthia Fuchs Epstein The Construction and Reconstruction of Gender Boundaries at Work Cultural Roots - Benedict Anderson On the Microfoundations of Macrosociology - Randall Collins Action and Its Environments - Jeffrey C Alexander Historical Materialism and the Development of Normative Structures - J[um]urgen Habermas Complex Equality - Michael Walzer PART TWO: CURRENT CONTROVERSIES Postmodern Social Theory as Narrative with a Moral Intent - Steven Seidman Encoding, Decoding - Stuart Hall Introduction to the Moro Morality Play - Robin Erica Wagner-Pacifici The Promise of a Cultural Sociology - Jeffrey C Alexander Technological Discourse and the Sacred and Profane Information Machine