Contested Knowledge: Social Theory in the Postmodern Era

Rating:
Summary: A good overview of social thoery with a theme
Review: In this book, Seidman displays the arc of sociological theory, starting with Comte and the Founding Fathers of sociology (Marx, Durkheim, & Weber). He then moves through to more contemporary theory, including post-structuralism (post-modernism). The purpose beghind this book is to look for the moral beliefs that are inevitably imbedded in any abstract theory of sociology. It is only one book, so it would be impossible for him to cover everything, but he does provide a starting point, and a very good one at that. I HIGHLY recomend reading the biographical information at the beginning of teh book, as it gives great insights into this work.

Rating:
Summary: Very predictable but informative at the same time
Review: This book is rather ambitious, its attempt to condense Sociological theory into one volume was well tried. His knowledge of the canon was excellent andcriticisms on Durkheim, Comte, Weber, Marx and Parsons were limited. Additionally, I found that it became predictable at times and that his analysis of black and other minority groups was marginal. Even his analysis of Feminism was unrounded.