Developments in American Sociological Theory, 1915-1950

This book presents a comprehensive, extended, and systematic analysis of social theory as it developed between the two World Wars, a period during which major transformation occurred. Centering on the continuities, on the one hand, and discontinuities on the other, in substantive theory, it deals with the major ideas of Cooley, Ellwood, Park, Thomas, Ogburn, Bernard, Chapin, Mead, Faris, Hankins, MacIver, Reuter, Lundberg, H. P. Becker, Parsons, Znaniecki, Sorokin, and Blumer. Finally, the problematic relevancy of the past for the present is directly confronted. The author examines how basic assumptions of theory in particular periods have used relatively unique schema and generated considerable controversy.