Sociologist Charles Lemert argues that race is the central feature of modern culture; this was true for the 20th century and it will be true for the 21st. If we want to understand how the world works, Lemert explains, we must understand the centrality of race in our lives and in the foundation of our society. We must also be able to face up to what we've done to one another in the name of race.

Prominent sociologist Charles Lemert compellingly argues that race is the central feature of modern culture; this was true for the 20th century and it will be true for the 21st. If we want to understand how the world works, Lemert explains, we must understand the centrality of race in our lives and in the foundation of our society. We must also be able to face up to what we've done to one another in the name of race. This book tells of the important moments of the 20th century through the writings of such major figures as W.E.B. Du Bois, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Anna Julia Cooper, Nella...

From Saussure and Levi-Strauss to Foucault, Bourdieu and Derrida, current criticism of modern politics and culture owe an important, if unacknowledged, debt to Emile Durkheim. These engaging and innovative essays by Charles Lemert bring together his writings on the contributions of French social theory past and present. Rather than merely interpret the theories, Lemert uses them to explore the futures of sociology, social theory, and culture studies. He offers the reader original insights into Durkheim's legacy and broader traditions of the cultural and social sciences.

Weber himself characterized his first book--translated here in its first, complete English edition--as a study in the "formation of commercial law." Weber's argument centers on the legal characteristics of medieval enterprises as a historical precursor to modern forms of commercial enterprises. Weber emphasizes dimensions of medieval law and practices that are at the root of today's business partnerships and modern capitalism. The History of Commercial Partnerships in the Middle Ages exemplifies Weber's early work in political economy and legal history. His insights here inform parts of his...

The first edition of Tally's Corner, a sociological classic selling more than one million copies, was the first compelling response to the culture of poverty thesis--that the poor are different and, according to conservatives, morally inferior--and alternative explanations that many African Americans are caught in a tangle of pathology owing to the absence of black men in families. The debate has raged up to the present day. Yet Liebow's shadow theory of values--especially the values of poor, urban, black men--remains the single most parsimonious account of the reasons why the behavior of the...

This absorbing book unravels the reasons for the enduring respect and reverence that Muhammad Ali commands long after the end of his athletic career. It will appeal to those teaching and studying cultural studies, social theory, sports studies, and sociology, as well as to general readers interested in Muhammad Ali.

• A probing account of Muhammad Ali's life, which also examines the man's celebrity and his importance in global history.
  
• The first book to unravel the reasons for the enduring respect and reverence that Muhammad Ali commands long after...

This absorbing book unravels the reasons for the enduring respect and reverence that Muhammad Ali commands long after the end of his athletic career. It will appeal to those teaching and studying cultural studies, social theory, sports studies, and sociology, as well as to general readers interested in Muhammad Ali.

• A probing account of Muhammad Ali's life, which also examines the man's celebrity and his importance in global history.
  
• The first book to unravel the reasons for the enduring respect and reverence that Muhammad Ali commands long after...

This collection is a major contribution to the reconstruction of gender balance in African-American history -Manning Marable, Columbia University

For the first time, Crime and Deviance brings together the important essays and previously unpublished writings of Edwin M. Lemert. More than any other author, Lemert first established the foundations of the modern sociology of crime and social deviance. Beginning with his first and now classic work, Social Pathology, in 1951 through his last work The Trouble With Evil published in 1997 the year of his death, Lemert wrote with keen empirical insight on crime and criminal personality, juvenile justice, alcoholism, check forgers, court and legal process, among many other topics. Lemert's famous...

The Goffman Reader aims to bring the most complete collection of Erving Goffman's (1922-1982) writing and thinking as a sociologist. Among the most inventive, unique and individualistic of thinkers in American sociology, his works first appeared in the early 1950's at a time when a more formal, traditional sociology dominated the scene. In this collection, Goffman's work is arranged into four categories: the production of self, the confined self, the nature of social life, and the framing of experience. Through this arrangement, readers will not only be presented with Goffman's thinking in...