This revision of a highly regarded book of readings in social theory has selections representing the essential elements of three periods: the classical tradition, contemporary sociological theory and post-modernity. The text begins with a comprehensive general introduction as well as introductions to each of the chapters that provide bibliographical background and historical context. The chronological organization coordinates well with Geroge Ritzer's or other primary texts in social theory. The text can also be used as a supplementary text in basic sociology courses.

Table of Contents:
Introduction - the classic tradition to post-modernism - an overview. Part 1 The classic tradition: the first technocrat, Auguste Comte, "plan of the scientific operations necessary for reorganizing society" in systems of positive policy, Auguste Comte; alienation, class struggle and class consciousness, Karl Marx, the manifesto of the Communist Party, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, economic and philosophic manuscripts of 1844, Karl Marx, the German ideology, Marx and Engels, introduction to a critique of political economy, Marx, theses on Feuerbach, Marx; anomie and social integration, Emile Durkheim, "Egiostic suicide" and "anomic suicide" in suicide - a study in sociology, Emile Durkheim, elementary forms of religious life, Emile Durkheim; reason and power, Friedrich Nietzsche, the will to power, Friedrich Nietszche; the iron cape, Max Weber, bureaucracy, Weber, class, status, party, Weber, objectivity in social science and social policy, Weber; dialectic of individual and society, Georg Simmel, the metropolis and mental life, Georg Simmel; the emergent self, George Herbert Mead, mind, self and society, Mead; sociology of knowledge and the role of intellectuals, Karl Mannheim, "the prospects of scientific politics" and "the sociological problem of the 'intelligentsia'" in ideology and utopia, Karl Mannheim. Part 2 Contemporary sociological theory: functionalism - the functional prerequisites of a society, D.F. Aberle et al, age and sex in the social structure of the United States, Talcott Parsons, manifest and latent functions, Robert K. Merton; conflict theory - "social structure, group interests and conflict groups" in class and class conflict in industrial society, Ralf Dahrendorf, the structure of power in America, C. Wright Mills; exchange theory - "the structure of social associations" in exchange and power in social life, Peter Blau; phenomenological society - "common sense and scientific interpretation of human action" in collected papers, Alfred Schutz, "foundations of knowledge in everyday life" in the social construction of reality, Peter Berger and Thomas Luckman; symbolic interaction - society as symbolic interaction, Herbert Blumer, the presentation of self in everyday life, Erving Goffman; feminist social theory - "women's experience as a radical critique of sociology" in the conceptual practices of power - a feminist sociology of knowledge, Dorothy Smith. Part 3 Modernity/post-modernity. (Part contents).