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Praise for the First Edition:



`Totally reliable... the authors have produced a book urgently needed by all those charged with introducing students to the classics... quite indispensable' - Times Higher Education Supplement





This is a fully updated and expanded new edition of the successful undergraduate text. Providing a lucid examination of the pivotal theories of Marx, Durkheim and Weber, the authors submit that these figures have decisively shaped the discipline. They show how the classical apparatus is in use, even though it is being directed in new ways in response to the changing character of society.





Written with the needs of undergraduates in mind, the text is essential reading for students in sociology and social theory.

Understanding Classical Sociology: Marx, Weber, Durkheim

Introduction

Sociology's Intellectual Character

Conclusion

Select Bibliography and Further Reading

Karl Marx

Biography and Social Background

Early Years: The Critique of Hegel's Idealism

Turning Hegel the Right Way Up

The Critique of Political Economy

The Partnership with Engels

The Materialist Conception of History

The Priority of Society

The Material Basis of Social Organisation

Economic Production and Social Organisation

The Shaping of Consciousness

The Sources of Social Change

The Nature of Social Change

Social Revolution

The Economic Sources of Social Change

Issues of Interpretation

Changes in the Nature of Capitalism

Conclusion: Marx's Legacy

Select Bibliography and Further Reading

Max Weber

The Early Career

Weber and Modern Capitalism

The Organisation of Society

Capitalism, Rationality and Social Change

The Methodological Weber

The Legacy

Select Bibliography and Further Reading

Emile Durkheim

The Study of Social Action

The Reality of Society

The Unity of Society

Autonomy and Constraint

The Solidarity of Society

Thought and Society

The Diagnosis of Society

The Aftermath

Select Bibliography and Further Reading

Conclusion

Towards a Postmodern Marx?

The Durkheimian Legacy

Which Weber?

Concluding Remarks