This book explores the many different strands in the language of civil society from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. Through a series of case-studies it investigates the applicability of the term to a wide range of historical settings. The contributors show how past understandings of the term were often very different from (even in some respects the exact opposite of) those held today.

This book explores the many different strands in the language of civil society from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. Through a series of case-studies it investigates the applicability of the term to a wide range of historical settings. The contributors show how past understandings of the term were often very different from (even in some respects the exact opposite of) those held today.

Tonnies' Community and Civil Society (first published in 1887 as Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft) is a classic of social and political theory, exploring the tension between close-knit "communities" and an emerging global market "society." It is a response to modernity, an exercise in social, political and moral science, and an unusual commentary on the inner character of "democratic socialism." This new translation and introduction make this important work much more readily accessible to student readers, and those interested in social and political theory and the history of European ideas.