This extraordinary prescient work by Ferdinand Toennies was written in 1887 for a small coterie of scholars, and over the next fifty years continued to grow in importance and adherents. Its translator into English, Charles P. Loomis, well described it as a volume which pointed back into the Middle Ages and ahead into the future in its attempt to answer the questions: "What are we? Where are we? Whence did we come? Where are we going?" If the questions seem portentous in the extreme, the answers Toennies provides are modest and compelling. Every major field from sociology, to psychology, to anthropology, has found this to be a praiseworthy book. The admirable translation by Professor Loomis did much to transfer praise for the Toennies text from the German to the English-speaking world. Now, outfitted with a brilliant new opening essay by John Samples, the author of a recent full-scale biographical work on Toennies, 'Community and Society' is back in print; a welcome reminder of the glorious past of German social science.
In Custom, Ferdinand Tönnies illustrates the relationship of custom to various aspects of culture, such as religion, gender, and family. Tönnies argues that all social norms are evolved from a basic sense of order, which is largely derived from customs. As such, custom refers to the ideal, and the desirable, and it mediates subjective aspects of social life. Tönnies makes observations in Custom that are just as true today as when they were written over a century ago. The pivotal idea in Tönnies work is the observation that custom, like its individual counterpart habit, has three distinct aspects: a fact—an actual way of conduct; a norm—a general rule of conduct; and a will. The analysis, extended into the field of collective behavior, helps to explain how far custom can be regarded as a manifestation of a common will. Custom is a classic contribution in the grand canon of law and society scholarship. Moreover, the volume introduces several key elements of Tönnies’ work focusing on broader sociological thought, which benefits both the theoretical understanding of law as an object of social science reflection, as well as provides empirical insights into the roles of law in society.
This extraordinary prescient work by Ferdinand Toennies was written in 1887 for a small coterie of scholars, and over the next fifty years continued to grow in importance and adherents. Its translator into English, Charles P. Loomis, well described it as a volume which pointed back into the Middle Ages and ahead into the future in its attempt to answer the questions: "What are we? Where are we? Whence did we come? Where are we going?" If the questions seem portentous in the extreme, the answers Toennies provides are modest and compelling. Every major field from sociology, to psychology, to anthropology, has found this to be a praiseworthy book. The admirable translation by Professor Loomis did much to transfer praise for the Toennies text from the German to the English-speaking world. Now, outfitted with a brilliant new opening essay by John Samples, the author of a recent full-scale biographical work on Toennies, Community and Society is back in print; a welcome reminder of the glorious past of German social science.
If there is a-"desert island" book in the conduct of social research, it is arguably this book. Whether in terms of sociological structures or psychological nuances, Communism, Conformity, and Civil Liberties, originally published in 1955, is a recognized landmark. Stouffer helped strengthen the fundamental liberties of all Americans by showing dangerous consequences of efforts to thwart a perceived Communist conspiracy, including some of the very real liberties that can be destroyed in the process of a witch-hunt. Stouffer explores attitudes of Americans against a backdrop of a history of intolerance that dates back to the Know-Nothing party before the Civil War and extending through the Ku Klux Klan after World War I. The overall results show a markedly strong relationship between perception of high national risk and personal intolerance of differences, and also the perception of threat and tolerance that operates as a predisposing tendency that affects judgments about specific political movements and events. Stouffer enriches the sense and meaning of survey research by emphasizing patterns of percentages rather than actual amounts; survey craftsmanship; the use of paired sampling techniques to reduce problems of chance; the importance of completion rates in survey research work; the importance of interruptions during a questioning period; the choice of field workers in performing the surveys. The actual survey instruments are included as prepared by the National Opinion Research Center and the Gallup Organization. They remain a model for large-scale samples of this kind. The beautiful, highly personal, introduction by James Davis places Stouffer in an appropriate academic and professional context. Stouffer was a great sociologist with two landmark efforts to his credit: The American Soldier and then Communism, Conformity and Civil Liberties. Professor Davis calls this "a great classic of empirical sociology." It is
Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft (Community and Civil Society) is a classic of social and political theory, exploring the tension between close-knit 'communities' and an emerging global market 'society'. This new translation and introduction make this seminal work accessible to students of social and political theory and the history of European ideas.
This extraordinary prescient work by Ferdinand Toennies was written in 1887 for a small coterie of scholars, and over the next fifty years continued to grow in importance and adherents. Its translator into English, Charles P. Loomis, well described it as a volume which pointed back into the Middle Ages and ahead into the future in its attempt to answer the questions: "What are we? Where are we? Whence did we come? Where are we going?" If the questions seem portentous in the extreme, the answers Toennies provides are modest and compelling. Every major field from sociology, to psychology, to anthropology, has found this to be a praiseworthy book. The admirable translation by Professor Loomis did much to transfer praise for the Toennies text from the German to the English-speaking world. Now, outfitted with a brilliant new opening essay by John Samples, the author of a recent full-scale biographical work on Toennies, 'Community and Society' is back in print; a welcome reminder of the glorious past of German social science.
In Custom, Ferdinand Tönnies illustrates the relationship of custom to various aspects of culture, such as religion, gender, and family. Tönnies argues that all social norms are evolved from a basic sense of order, which is largely derived from customs. As such, custom refers to the ideal, and the desirable, and it mediates subjective aspects of social life. Tönnies makes observations in Custom that are just as true today as when they were written over a century ago. The pivotal idea in Tönnies work is the observation that custom, like its individual counterpart habit, has three distinct aspects: a fact—an actual way of conduct; a norm—a general rule of conduct; and a will. The analysis, extended into the field of collective behavior, helps to explain how far custom can be regarded as a manifestation of a common will. Custom is a classic contribution in the grand canon of law and society scholarship. Moreover, the volume introduces several key elements of Tönnies’ work focusing on broader sociological thought, which benefits both the theoretical understanding of law as an object of social science reflection, as well as provides empirical insights into the roles of law in society.
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