A Treatise on Social Theory

The third and concluding volume on social theory, applying distinctive methodology to case of twentieth-century England.

Walter Garrison Runciman (Author)

9780521588010, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 28 August 1997

348 pages
22.9 x 2 x 15.2 cm, 0.51 kg

'No serious scholar of twentieth-century Britain can be without it.' The Financial Times

In this concluding volume of his trilogy on social theory, W. G. Runciman applies to the case of twentieth-century English society the methodology (distinguishing reportage, explanation, description, and evaluation) and theory of the preceding two volumes. Volume III shows how England's capitalist mode of production, liberal mode of persuasion, and democratic mode of coercion evolved in the aftermath of the First World War from what they had been since the 1880s, but then did not, in turn, evolve significantly following the Second World War. The explanation rests on an analysis of the selective pressures favouring some economic, ideological, and political practices over others in an increasingly complex environment, neither predictable nor controllable by policy-makers. This is supported by a graphic account of the changes themselves and how they were experienced by different segments of English society.

1. Introduction: the case of twentieth-century England
2. The case reported
3. The case explained
4. The case described
5. The case evaluated.

Subject Areas: Social theory [JHBA]