The post-Communist societies of Eastern Europe are examples of a social formation of great theoretical interest with distinctive features of its own. They reveal that Soviet-imposed real socialism has produced more fundamental and enduring changes in the region than had generally been believed.

Anthony Giddens is one of the most respected and influential social theorists at work today. This wide-ranging and stimulating volume, first published in 1991, provides an authoratative and penetrating critical assessment of social theory.

This book, first published in 1976, discusses four classical paradigms for sociology - the positivism of Saint-Simon and Comte, Durkheim, Marx and Weber - and four contemporary developments or revisions of them - the sociologie active of Dumazedier and his colleagues in France, sociology in Socialist Poland, the work of Dahrendorf and the 'new sociology' of Mills and his successors. Christopher Bryant suggests that no neutral language exists in which to compare the characteristics of these different paradigms, yet highlights those features which are common to all of them. Unique in its...