This concise, engaging anthology contains the most significant and representative selections from the four major schools of sociological thought. The intellectual highlights of each school are presented, and readings range from the classics to the contemporary. Brief introductions and commentary guide the student to the key contributions in each selection. Designed to accompany Four Sociological Traditions, this anthology is entirely self-contained and may also be used separately.

Unit 1. The Conflict Tradition

History as Class Struggle, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Materialism and the Theory of Ideology, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
The Class Basis of Politics and Revolution, Karl Marx
The Origin of Modern Capitalism, Max Weber
Power Divisions as the Basis of Class Conflict, Ralf Dahrendorf
A Theory of Inequality, Gerhard E. Lenski
A Conflict Theory of Stratification, Randall Collins

Unit 2. The Rational/Utilitarian Tradition

Social Exchange among Equals and Unequals, George C. Homans
Bounded Rationality and Satisficing, James G. March and Herbert A. Simon
Tacit Coordination, Thomas C. Schelling
Public Goods and the Free Rider Problem, Mancur Olson
The Realization of Effective Norms, James S. Coleman

Unit 3. The Durkheimian Tradition

Pre-contractual Solidarity, Emile Durkheim
Social Rituals and Sacred Objects, Emile Durkheim
The Social Circulation of Sentiments, Magic, and Money, Henri Hubert and Marcel Mauss
Kinship as Sexual Property Exchange, Claude Levi-Strauss
The Nature of Deference and Demeanor, Erving Coffman
Social Control in Science, Warren O. Hagstrom
Grid and Group, Mary Douglas

Unit 4. The Microinteractionist Tradition

Society Is in the Mind, Charles Horton Cooley
Thought as Internalized Conversation, George Herbert Mead
Symbolic Interactionism, Herbert Blumer
The Ethnomethodology of the Human Reality Constructor, Hugh Mehan and Houston Wood
Frame Analysis, Erving Goffman