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Social Theory: A Historical Introduction
The second edition of this remarkably lucid text, provides a wide-ranging historical introduction to social theory. The new edition preserves, and further enhances, the book’s striking qualities – its clarity, reliability, comprehensiveness and scholarship. The theorists treated include Montesquieu, Adam Smith and the Scottish Enlightenment, Hegel, Marx, Tocqueville, Maistre, Gobineau, Darwin, Spencer, Kautsky, Nietzsche, Durkheim, Weber, Simmel, Freud, Lukács, Gramsci, Heidegger, Keynes, Hayek, Parsons, the Frankfurt School, Lévi-Strauss, Althusser, Foucault, Habermas, Bourdieu, Beck, and Giddens. Callinicos examines the ways in which social theory grew out of the eighteenth century Enlightenment, a time when societies emerging in the West ceased to invoke the authority of tradition to validate themselves, instead looking to scientific knowledge to justify their mastery of the world. He traces social theory’s connections with central themes in modern philosophy, with the development of political economy, and with the impact of evolutionary biology on social thought. The book has been carefully updated to ensure that it engages with the most up-to-date debates in social theory, and concludes with a substantial new chapter. Here Callinicos assesses the significance of contemporary debates about globalization, including the recent re-emergence of critiques of capitalism and imperialism in the work of Michael Hardt, Toni Negri, Luc Boltanski, Eve Chiapello, David Harvey, Robert Brenner, Giovanni Arrighi, and Slavoj Žižek. This updated version of a widely praised text will be essential reading for students of politics, sociology and social and political thought.
368 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
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About the author
Alex Callinicos
141 books71 followersAlexander Theodore Callinicos, a descendant through his mother of Lord Acton, is a political theorist and Director of the Centre for European Studies at King's College London. He holds both a BA and a DPhil from Oxford University.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 7, 2020
کتاب بسیار خوبیه. اما ترجمهٔ سختش و غیبت یک ویراستار ساده خوندن متن رو طولانی پرزحمت میکنه.
الان متوجه میشم که چرا دفعات قبلی بیشتر از ۵۰-۴۰ صفحه نتونستم بخونم!
مسئلهٔ اصلی کتاب همونطور که از اسمش پیداست، سرگذشت نظریه اجتماعی از روشنگریه تا بعد از جنبش می ۶۸. فهم این پیوستگی بین تئوریها و تأثیر و تأثر تئوریسنها از همدیگر و از شرایط و زمینهٔ سیاسی و اجتماعی هر دورهٔ تاریخی، حظ وافریه که ماحصل خوندن کتابه.
بهرحال بعضی فصلهای کتاب از جمله وبر و دورکیم بسیار درخشاناند و بعضی فصلها -البته بهندرت-خوب نیستند، مثل هایدگر.
به نظر من بین شرحهای موجود شرح دست بالاتریه و بنابراین برای شروع نظریه خوندن مناسب نیست.
الان متوجه میشم که چرا دفعات قبلی بیشتر از ۵۰-۴۰ صفحه نتونستم بخونم!
مسئلهٔ اصلی کتاب همونطور که از اسمش پیداست، سرگذشت نظریه اجتماعی از روشنگریه تا بعد از جنبش می ۶۸. فهم این پیوستگی بین تئوریها و تأثیر و تأثر تئوریسنها از همدیگر و از شرایط و زمینهٔ سیاسی و اجتماعی هر دورهٔ تاریخی، حظ وافریه که ماحصل خوندن کتابه.
بهرحال بعضی فصلهای کتاب از جمله وبر و دورکیم بسیار درخشاناند و بعضی فصلها -البته بهندرت-خوب نیستند، مثل هایدگر.
به نظر من بین شرحهای موجود شرح دست بالاتریه و بنابراین برای شروع نظریه خوندن مناسب نیست.
March 6, 2022
This is an excellent, advanced survey of (European and some American) social, economic, and political thought from the 18th to early 21st century—figures such as Hegel, Marx, Weber, and Habermas. For Anglo-American "analytic" readers, it serves as a mercifully clear overview of the main concerns and theorists within "Continental philosophy." I recommend reading it if you are interested in understanding the historical developments and debates surrounding concepts such as modernity, Marxism, postmodernism, globalization, etc.
April 28, 2012
I'm afraid this will be way too difficult for my first year undergraduates, but at the same time it is possibly the most sophisticated textbook around. Callinicos beautifully weaves together philosophy, sociology and political economy in a way that few others manage to. It is also one of the few openly critical social theory texts--something that couldn't be recommended enough for students today.
July 22, 2008
Callinicos' late-nineties introduction to social theory covers a range of thinkers, from the "holy troika" of Marx, Durkheim and Weber, to proponents of classical liberalism (Tocqueville, Mill), conservatism (Maistre, Spencer,) Western Marxism (e.g., Lukacs), Post-Structuralism and beyond. Callinicos' approach contains two elements that distinguish this volume from most accounts of the subject:
1. Social theory as a theorization of modernity. Callinicos situates each of the thinkers surveyed in relation to their conception of modernity. Roughly, the major thinkers either developed a critical acceptance (e.g., Durkheim), outright rejection (e.g., Nietzsche) or proposed a revolutionary transformation (e.g., Marx) of modernity.
2. The role of biological thought and evolution in social theory. Thus Callinicos spends an unusual amount of time on Darwin and the various attempts to integrate an evolutionary perspective into social theory.
The approach works quite well-- he develops Nietzsche's thought from an evolutionary perspective and then references many of the major 20th century thinkers in relation to the "Will to Power." The result is one of the clearest and most compelling accounts of Nietzsche as a political thinker that I've come across. Callinicos also soars in his dissection of Lukacs, Durkheim and the Frankfurt School. He misses, however, in describing Heidegger, Weber and some of the post-structuralists; however, this might be because of the elliptical nature in which these writers expressed themselves.
Overall, it is a worthy introduction to the subject, but gets only four stars because he doesn't do enough to connect some writers more directly and clearly to the central questions of the field. This means that at times one is left feeling that they've been led quite far afield from the subject at hand. But he returns often enough that it all makes for a compelling read and a useful introduction.
1. Social theory as a theorization of modernity. Callinicos situates each of the thinkers surveyed in relation to their conception of modernity. Roughly, the major thinkers either developed a critical acceptance (e.g., Durkheim), outright rejection (e.g., Nietzsche) or proposed a revolutionary transformation (e.g., Marx) of modernity.
2. The role of biological thought and evolution in social theory. Thus Callinicos spends an unusual amount of time on Darwin and the various attempts to integrate an evolutionary perspective into social theory.
The approach works quite well-- he develops Nietzsche's thought from an evolutionary perspective and then references many of the major 20th century thinkers in relation to the "Will to Power." The result is one of the clearest and most compelling accounts of Nietzsche as a political thinker that I've come across. Callinicos also soars in his dissection of Lukacs, Durkheim and the Frankfurt School. He misses, however, in describing Heidegger, Weber and some of the post-structuralists; however, this might be because of the elliptical nature in which these writers expressed themselves.
Overall, it is a worthy introduction to the subject, but gets only four stars because he doesn't do enough to connect some writers more directly and clearly to the central questions of the field. This means that at times one is left feeling that they've been led quite far afield from the subject at hand. But he returns often enough that it all makes for a compelling read and a useful introduction.
January 22, 2022
Callinicos defines social theory as generalizations about society – as distinct from political institutions – which have been developed primarily to analyse modernity in the West over the past few centuries. He makes a comparison in the introduction between his work and that of Quentin Skinner, whose history of political thought is concerned with the early modern period (loosely) from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment; and while Callinicos is a bit barbed about their differences, I see no reason not to see them as complementary, since Callinicos takes up where Skinner left off. As it stands, Callinicos takes off inelegantly, like an albatross from a standing start, and his opening chapters on the Enlightenment and then on Hegel are far too condensed to be easily absorbed.
(https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Once in his stride the book becomes brilliantly informative and thought provoking. His intention, declared in the introduction, is not to attempt a comprehensive coverage of the topic, which would be self defeating in any case, but to identify significant highlights while signposting important texts that have shaped the debate. In exchange for brevity he makes it possible to survey a huge range of ideas across two centuries.
It is always succinct and therefore dense, requiring periodic reflection to avoid being overwhelmed, and he has the academic’s flair for slipping in breathtaking generalisations that point to wider debates far beyond the text. His coverage is inevitably selective and this is especially the case for the most recent period (the 1990s). He acknowledges that it is difficult in any case to wrote seriously about the immediate present. There is a whole discussion to be had about the topics and thinkers he omits from his survey and I am sure that the failure to give feminism any place whatsoever will be nearly as annoying to some as his suggestion that Judith Butler is “of course one of the leading contemporary feminists.” She’s not, but he does have a footnote to mention Martha Nussbaum’s demolition of Butler in “The Professor of Parody.”
Callinicos has written elsewhere about the deficiencies of postmodernism and he repeats his main arguments here, while suggesting that in any event postmodernism is already (in the 1990s) overtaken by fresh ways of thinking. He gives a useful criticism of post-colonialism – pointing out that South African apartheid was overcome by appealing to universal, western values.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Callinicos laments the extent to which social theory has become detached from practical politics in an academic environment that permits far too much self-indulgence. If anything, since the time he wrote this book, academic social theory has had excessive influence and been permitted too much licence. By providing this readable and mostly digestible survey of the field, this book makes a contribution to his appeal for the general reader to be brought more fully into the debate.
(https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Once in his stride the book becomes brilliantly informative and thought provoking. His intention, declared in the introduction, is not to attempt a comprehensive coverage of the topic, which would be self defeating in any case, but to identify significant highlights while signposting important texts that have shaped the debate. In exchange for brevity he makes it possible to survey a huge range of ideas across two centuries.
It is always succinct and therefore dense, requiring periodic reflection to avoid being overwhelmed, and he has the academic’s flair for slipping in breathtaking generalisations that point to wider debates far beyond the text. His coverage is inevitably selective and this is especially the case for the most recent period (the 1990s). He acknowledges that it is difficult in any case to wrote seriously about the immediate present. There is a whole discussion to be had about the topics and thinkers he omits from his survey and I am sure that the failure to give feminism any place whatsoever will be nearly as annoying to some as his suggestion that Judith Butler is “of course one of the leading contemporary feminists.” She’s not, but he does have a footnote to mention Martha Nussbaum’s demolition of Butler in “The Professor of Parody.”
Callinicos has written elsewhere about the deficiencies of postmodernism and he repeats his main arguments here, while suggesting that in any event postmodernism is already (in the 1990s) overtaken by fresh ways of thinking. He gives a useful criticism of post-colonialism – pointing out that South African apartheid was overcome by appealing to universal, western values.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Callinicos laments the extent to which social theory has become detached from practical politics in an academic environment that permits far too much self-indulgence. If anything, since the time he wrote this book, academic social theory has had excessive influence and been permitted too much licence. By providing this readable and mostly digestible survey of the field, this book makes a contribution to his appeal for the general reader to be brought more fully into the debate.
July 30, 2011
Read the second edition. A great historical introduction to social theory, especially for Masters or PhD students in all fields of social sciences. Could be used as a graduate text book even. The language is clear, concise and doesn't hinder the reading. The book is up-to-date in that it follows and notes recent debates and revisions in historical issues.
The book, though, is written from Marxist point of view as Callinicos himself is a staunch Marxist. This could be considered both a plus and a minus for the book. I, myself, liked that the book tried to address some normative issues boldly.
Only lacking thing in the book is that some major social theorists of the late 20th century are not addressed. Systems theory and World systems theory should have found a place in that book. Wallerstein is too influential to not even mention and Niklass Luhmann would have been a nice touch contra Habermas. And in the section about networks, I expected some mention of Bruno Latour and actor-network theory.
Regardless, this book is an exceptional contribution to the literature.
The book, though, is written from Marxist point of view as Callinicos himself is a staunch Marxist. This could be considered both a plus and a minus for the book. I, myself, liked that the book tried to address some normative issues boldly.
Only lacking thing in the book is that some major social theorists of the late 20th century are not addressed. Systems theory and World systems theory should have found a place in that book. Wallerstein is too influential to not even mention and Niklass Luhmann would have been a nice touch contra Habermas. And in the section about networks, I expected some mention of Bruno Latour and actor-network theory.
Regardless, this book is an exceptional contribution to the literature.
May 7, 2018
I picked this up to prep myself for starting a Socio PhD in the fall, and while Callinicos is certainly very thorough in tying together relevant authors, ideas, schools, and general movements, this book wasn't the easiest to just sit down and understand. It's densely written, and I'm going to say that this isn't a true "introduction"-- I suspect that it would be ideal for, say, a graduate seminar, but as a literate and intelligent person who just doesn't have background with the topic, it wasn't as self-explanatory as I was hoping it would be.
That being said, while I did skim the final 1/3 of this book, I suspect it'll be one that I return to once I'm in school and in conversations where this kind of subject matter comes up more often. Well-organized, helpful reading lists in the back, and the index looks useful. So, while it wasn't my piece of pie this time around, overall it does what it needs to do.
That being said, while I did skim the final 1/3 of this book, I suspect it'll be one that I return to once I'm in school and in conversations where this kind of subject matter comes up more often. Well-organized, helpful reading lists in the back, and the index looks useful. So, while it wasn't my piece of pie this time around, overall it does what it needs to do.
January 27, 2015
It's very good. Callinicos seems to work best when he is rehearsing other people's ideas. He knows his stuff and he summarizes it well.
Read
February 12, 2008A great book that traces the development of modern social theory, including detailed analysis of the contributions and works of theoretical figures.
Also a great polemic against postmodernism.
Also a great polemic against postmodernism.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews