Key Ideas in Sociology

With each passing generation, contemporary members of society are intrigued by how those who lived before them viewed and dealt with their changing world. Newer generations borrow ideas from their predecessors and adapt those ideas to new circumstances in order to define and manage social change. Key Ideas in Sociology, Second Edition explores some of the major ideas that have developed out of this tradition and evaluates their origins, their development, and their relevance at the dawn of the twenty-first century.

The book follows the course of key concepts that have shaped sociological discourse from the founding period in the nineteenth century to the present, and examines four key ideas that have played a central role―industrial society, democracy, individualism, and modernity. Author Peter Kivisto brings these concepts alive by connecting them to the legendary figures responsible for developing, revising, and expanding sociological theory.