About the Book

The book covers leading exponents of sociology, both classical and contemporary, who are regarded as masters of social thought. The book critically examines the major social thinkers from Auguste Comte to Anthony Giddens chronologically.

The book offers students a lively and critical introduction to different concepts and theories and to the ways in which sociologists are trained to think and work. It is written with a range of students in mind. It will also be of interest to anyone curious about the nature of classical sociology.

A central purpose of this text is to be concise and simple. No student of sociology and its related fields can ignore this book.

Contents

Introduction

Auguste Comte

Karl Heinrich Marx

Herbert Spencer

Vilfredo Pareto

Émile Durkheim

Max Weber

George Herbert Mead

Charles H. Cooley

Alfred Schütz

Talcott Parsons

George C. Homans

Robert K. Merton

Claude Lévi Strauss

Harold Garfinkel

Erving Goffman

Paul-Michel Foucault

Jürgen Habermas

Jacques Derrida

Pierre Bourdieu

Anthony Giddens

About the Author / Editor

J.P. Singh, an author and lexicographer, holds MA (PU, Patna), MPhil (JNU, New Delhi) and a PhD from the Australian National University, Canberra. Worked as Associate Professor of Research Methodology at TISS, Mumbai, Addl. Director of Population Research Centre, Patna University, Director (Higher Education), Government of Bihar, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Sociology at Patna University, Patna. He held Professional Associateship of the Population Institute, East-West Center, Hawaii (USA). In addition to more than 100 research papers, essays and reviews, the author has published 40 books to his credit.