Overview

Talcott Parsons has been one of the most influential American sociologists of the postwar period. Bryan Turner's selections from Parsons' work provide a comprehensive overview of his principal contributions and are grouped under the following subdivisions: religion and modern society; life, sex, and death; sociological theory; and American society and the world order. These selections offer an exposition of the core features of Parsons' sociology and demonstrate his continuing relevance to critical issues today, including globalization, the place of American civilization in the world order, and the importance of sociological theory as an analysis of modern culture.

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9781557865441

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Reviews

With this astute and illuminating collection, Turner demonstrates for contemporary readers why Talcott Parsons is regarded as the dominant sociological theorist of the mid-twentieth century, and one of the master narrators of modernity. Ranging from economics and global power to considerations of youth, sickness, and death, these empirically-oriented selections reveal the vast scope of Parson's thought. - Jeffrey Alexander, University of California at Los Angeles <br> Parsons once described himself as an 'incurable theorist'. This excellent collection of essays reveals a practical sociologist possessing great insight into the modern condition. Professor Turner has done a real service in reminding us of the substantive issues to which Parsons's theoretical efforts were ultimately directed, issues which are as central to the discipline now as when Parsons was writing. - John Holmwood, University of Edinburgh

Author Information

The editor is Professor of Sociology at the University of Cambridge. He has held professional positions in Australia, Holland, and Germany, and his research areas are medical sociology, citizenship, and social theory. He has published numerous papers and books on the social thought of Talcott Parsons. Previous publications with Blackwell include The Body and Society (1984) and The Blackwell Companion to Social Theory (1996; second edition 2000). He is the foundation editor of the journal Citizenship Studies.

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