'Reconsidering the classics' is the theme of this selection of papers, from the 1997 Cologne conference of the International Institute of Sociology. This does not imply going back to their answers, but to their topics. Some of the issues covered in this volume are: freedom of societies; the privatisation of belief, ethnicity, and globalisation; East-West relations; and institutional rehabilitation. The book includes articles by major contemporary sociologists, including Raymond Boudon, Samuel Eisenstadt, William D'Antonio, Saskia Sassen, Pierpaolo Donati, Eugeen Roosens, Nikolai Genov, Mattei...