Sociology and the Twilight of Man

Rezensionen / Stimmen

"Using the method of linguistic analysis, Lemert subjects the works of some of the major contemporary American theorists (with Habermans the one European excep-tion) to a critical review. He advances the ar-gument that despite the apparent diversity of 'paradigms' among these works, all authors share the common assumption that 'man [is] a finite subject who dominates his own his-tory.' This assumption, Lemert maintains, has both unified sociological theory and pre-vented it from reaching new and presumably more accurate insights about the dynamics of modern social life. Lemert's analysis is fas-cinatingly original... his challenge will be worth the attention of the professional so-ciologist."-Library Journal

"Lemert presents a novel classificatory scheme for sociological theories. His thesis is that theory has become an independent as-pect of sociological literature... This work should appeal primarily to sociological specialists, and particularly advanced students of theory. Well indexed; excellent bibliogra-phy; the print is large and very readable. Le-mert writes exceptionally well and clearly."-Choice