"A rich, highly textured, historically sweeping, & strikingly inclusive collection that aims to reconstruct, perhaps for the first time, the actual dialogue of contemporary social thought." Jeffrey Alexander University of California at Los Angeles "Charles Lemert captures the surfacing of multiple theoretical voices in the postmodern era. No theory course should be without Social Theory." Steve Seidman State University of New York at Albany
In this time of great change in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, Karl Marx's relevance to modern social science may seem remote. However, this important study by Charles McKelvey shows just the opposite: Marx's concept of science can help social scientists gain a greater understanding of today's world society. Western ethnocentrism has, McKelvey argues, isolated the Euro-American sociologist from a true picture of the Third World. Modern sociology must rethink itself, McKelvey maintains, in light of Marxian concepts, Immanuel Wallerstein's "world systems perspective," and the cognitional theory of philosopher Bernard Lonergan.