{"id":2083,"date":"2014-01-01T22:34:53","date_gmt":"2014-01-02T03:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/?p=2083"},"modified":"2014-02-10T12:46:50","modified_gmt":"2014-02-10T17:46:50","slug":"20-great-books-in-sociology-that-deserve-more-readers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/2014\/01\/01\/20-great-books-in-sociology-that-deserve-more-readers\/","title":{"rendered":"20 Great Books in Sociology that Deserve More Readers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a column from &#8220;The Editors&#8217; Desk&#8221; at\u00a0<em>The Society Pages,<\/em>\u00a0Doug Hartmann offers a fascinating initial reading list for a new graduate course he&#8217;s proposed: &#8220;Great Books in Sociology.&#8221; He asked for comments, reactions, and suggestions. His post is below. I replied with a supplemental list of somewhat neglected classics.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Great Books in Sociology<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>by\u00a0Doug Hartmann,\u00a018 hours ago at 08:43 am<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGreat Books in Sociology\u201d is a new course I\u2019ve proposed for our graduate curriculum here at Minnesota. I\u2019m not sure I\u2019ll get to teach it or not, but I\u2019m having lots of fun thinking of the books I might include. Here\u2019s my initial list.<\/p>\n<p>1. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Max Weber)<\/p>\n<p>2. Black Reconstruction (W.E.B. DuBois)<\/p>\n<p>3. Stigma (Erving Goffman)<\/p>\n<p>4. The Managed Heart (Arlie Hochschild)<\/p>\n<p>5. The Culture of Public Problems (Joe Gusfield)<\/p>\n<p>6. Weight of the World (Pierre Bourdieu)<\/p>\n<p>7. Sidewalk (Mitch Duneier)<\/p>\n<p>8. Ghostly Matters (Avery Gordon)<\/p>\n<p>9. Religion in Human Evolution (Robert Bellah)<\/p>\n<p>Reactions? Thoughts? Anything obvious I\u2019ve missed? \u00a0The main criteria or principles I\u2019ve been using so far are: it has to be a real book not a collection; the author has to be a sociologist; and it has to be a work that is actually worth reading, not just something that you should read or that represents some larger point or principle.<\/p>\n<p>Also, if it is not obvious: I\u2019m trying to think of the list as a whole set as well. My larger idea and goal is that this kind of list\/course should help us not only think more about book-length writing and research projects, but also about what sociology itself is as an intellectual tradition and scholarly pursuit. Anyway, comments and suggestions\u2013for books, authors, or topics\u2013appreciated. This should be fun.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Monte Bute 2:58 am on January 1, 2014 |\u00a0#\u00a0|\u00a0Reply<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Here are a few thoughts on your list. My recommendations below are NOT my top 20, just some neglected sociological classics that deserve consideration for your course (and for the edification of young sociologists).<\/p>\n<p>Kudos on your selection of \u201cBlack Reconstruction in America.\u201d Far and away Du Bois\u2019 best and most influential academic work (note I said \u201cacademic\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>I concur that Goffman should be included. While \u201cStigma\u201d is a very good,\u201d \u201cThe Presentation of Self in Everyday Life\u201d will still be read in a 100 years.<\/p>\n<p>I agree that Bourdieu should also be included. However, \u201cWeight of the World\u201d is a questionable choice. It has 22 co-authors and seems more like Studs Turkel than an example of Bourdieu\u2019s best work like \u201cOutline of a Theory of Practice\u201d or \u201cDistinction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Simmel is the most obvious oversight. Unfortunately, the suggestion of \u201cThe Web of Group-Affiliation\u201d overlooks that it is just a chapter in \u201cSoziologie,\u201d as is \u201cConflict.\u201d The respective translations by Bendix and Wolff are conveniently available in a single volume. \u201cThe Philosophy of Money\u201d may end up his most canonical work.<\/p>\n<p>For Joe Gusfield, I would substitute \u201cSymbolic Crusade: Status Politics and the American Temperance Movement\u201d for \u201cThe Culture of Public Problems.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Here are 20 volumes for your consideration. I make no mention of books already cited in this thread of replies:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cDemocracy in America\u201d Vol. 2 (Tocqueville)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cTwenty Years at Hull-House\u201d or \u201cDemocracy and Social Ethics\u201d (Jane Addams)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThe Civilizing Process\u201d (Norbert Elias)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThe Reproduction of Mothering\u201d (Nancy Chodorow)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThe Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte\u201d (Karl Marx)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cMiddletown\u201d (Robert Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cIdeology and Utopia\u201d (Karl Mannheim)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cHuman Nature and the Social Order\u201d (Charles Cooley)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cSociety in America\u201d abridged ed. (Harriet Martineau)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThe Lonely Crowd\u201d \u201c(David Riesman)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThe Culture Industry\u201d (Theodor Adorno)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cA Voice from the South\u201d (Anna Julia Cooper)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThe Opium of the Intellectuals\u201d (Raymond Aron)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThe Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere\u201d (Jurgen Habermas)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThe Power Elite\u201d (C.W. Mills)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cClass and Class Conflict in Industrial Society\u201d (Ralf Dahrendorf)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cAbortion and the Politics of Motherhood\u201d (Kristin Luker)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cPolitical Parties\u201d (Robert Michels)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The Hidden Injuries of Class&#8221; or &#8220;Corrosion of Character&#8221; (Richard Sennett)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Paths in Utopia&#8221; (Martin Buber)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a column from &#8220;The Editors&#8217; Desk&#8221; at\u00a0The Society Pages,\u00a0Doug Hartmann offers a fascinating initial reading list for a new graduate course he&#8217;s proposed: &#8220;Great Books in Sociology.&#8221; He asked for comments, reactions, and suggestions. His post is below. I replied with a supplemental list of somewhat neglected classics. Great Books in Sociology by\u00a0Doug Hartmann,\u00a018 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3505,1568],"class_list":["post-2083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-social-theory","tag-sociologists"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2083"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2095,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083\/revisions\/2095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}