The Sociological Tradition

by Robert A. Nisbet

When first published, The Sociological Tradition had a profound and positive impact on sociology, providing a rich sense of intellectual background to a relatively new discipline in America. Robert Nisbet describes what he considers the golden age of sociology, 1830-1900, outlining five major themes of nineteenth-century community, authority, status, the sacred, and alienation. Nisbet focuses on sociology's European heritage, delineating the arguments of Tocqueville, Marx, Durkheim, and Weber in new and revealing ways. When the book initially appeared, the Times Literary Supplement noted that "this thoughtful and lucid guide shows more clearly than any previous book on social thought the common threads in the sociological tradition and the reasons why so many of its central concepts have stood the test of time." And Lewis Coser, writing in the New York Times Book Review, claimed that "this lucidly written and elegantly argued volume should go a long way toward laying to rest the still prevalent idea that sociology is an upstart discipline, unconcerned with, and alien to, the major intellectual currents of the modern world." Its clear and comprehensive analysis of the origins of this discipline ensures The Sociological Tradition a permanent place in the literature on sociology and its origins. It will be of interest to those interested in sociological theory, the history of social thought, and the history of ideas. Indeed, as Alasdair Maclntyre "We are unlikely to be given a better book to explain to us the inheritance of sociology from the conservative tradition."

Genres: Sociology, Nonfiction, Social Science

Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

American sociologist, professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Vice-Chancellor at the University of California, Riverside and as the Albert Schweitzer Professor at Columbia University.
After serving in the US Army during World War II, when he was stationed on Saipan in the Pacific theatre, Nisbet founded the Department of Sociology at Berkeley, and was briefly Chairman. Nisbet left an embroiled Berkeley in 1953 to become a dean at the University of California, Riverside, and later a Vice-Chancellor. Nisbet remained in the University of California system until 1972, when he left for the University of Arizona at Tucson. Soon thereafter, he was appointed to the prestigious Albert Schweitzer Chair at Columbia.
On retiring from Columbia in 1978, Nisbet continued his scholarly work for eight years at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington D.C. In 1988, President Reagan asked him to deliver the Jefferson Lecture in Humanities, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Nisbet's first important work, The Quest for Community (New York: Oxford University Press, 1969) contended that modern social science's individualism denied an important human drive toward community as it left people without the aid of their fellows in combating the centralizing power of the national state.
Nisbet is seen as follower of Emile Durkheim in the understanding of modern sociocultural systems and their drift. Often identified with the political right, Nisbet began his career as a political liberal but later confessed a conversion to a kind of philosophical Conservatism

Reviews

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty good intellectual history from the 1970's explaining some of the main threads of sociology from its origins in the enlightenment to its initial development from 1830-1900. Many of the notions and ideas developed in this time frame the way many modern thinkers perceive society at large, and therefore this makes for a fine read.

Recommended for:
those interested in the intellectual development of sociology

[Mehmet Ali KIZILASLAN · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tam bir başucu kitabı, sosyolojiye dair sağlam bir çerçeve oluşturacak cinsten.

[Ryan Lincoln · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recommended reading by Notre Dame Prof. Christian Smith.

I read this book to prepare for my PhD studies in Sociology.

It's fairly engaging for a dense topic, and covers the development of sociology as a discipline by examining the thought of prominent sociologists as clustered around the themes of community, authority, sacred, status, and alienation.

A very good introduction and a good complement to Turner's "The Emergence of Sociological Theory."

[Elif Sayın · Rating 5 out of 5]

Information overload!

Great book, highly recommended if you are interested in the intellectual history.

[Brett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although now dated, Nisbet's work offers keen insight and a unique methodology; it's one of the best overviews of classic sociological themes and theory (think Durkheim, Weber, Marx, et al.).

[Hakan Gülerce]

very good book for a general reviewing of the the classics.