Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction 

1.  Enlightenment, Conservative Reaction, Comte, and Spencer 

Enlightenment
Conservative Reaction
Auguste Comte
The Law of Three Stages
The Positive Philosophy
The Positive Polity
Herbert Spencer 

2. Karl Marx

Critique of the Critics of Consciousness
From the Critique of Consciousness to the Critique of Political Economy
The Analysis of Capitalist Society
The Labour Theory of Value
The Fetishism of Commodities
Surplus-Value
Capital, Contradiction, Crisis, and State 

3. Emile Durkheim

Consciousness, Law, and the History of Solidarity
Sociological Method
Suicide
Sociology, Morality, Education, and Religion
Science and Religion—Authority and Society 

4. Max Weber

Approach and Assumptions: A Sociological Reading of History
Action, Domination, and Legitimacy
Rational-Legal Authority and Bureaucracy
Traditional Domination and Authority
Charismatic Authority
Class, Status, and Party
Religion, Action, and Modern Rationality 

Conclusion: Modernity, Reason, and the Legacy of Classical Social Theory 

References

Index

About the Author

The late Richard W. Hadden was Associate Professor of Sociology at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax. He is author of the award-winning On the Shoulders of Merchants: Exchange and the Mathematical Conception of Nature in Early Modern Europe (State University of New York, 1994).

Reviews

Hadden's clear presentation of the often complex arguments of the classic European sociologists is most welcome. Although designed for the undergraduate student, this handy volume can be profitably read as a refresher by the professional sociologist as well.
--Carol Copp, California State University