The Theory and Scholarship of Talcott Parsons to 1951
A Critical Commentary

Bruce C. Wearne's detailed examination of Talcott Parsons' development as a scholar of social theory.

Bruce C. Wearne (Author)

9780521125185, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 10 December 2009

220 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.3 cm, 0.33 kg

The most influential sociologist to have emerged in the United States, Talcott Parsons developed a distinctive theoretical synthesis which drew on Weber, Smobart, Durkheim and Marx. He was the moving spirit behind the interdisciplinary Department of Social Relations at Harvard, and he became a central figure in the development of the social sciences in post-war America. Interest in his theories is now reviving, after a period of neglect, and Bruce C. Wearne's study will help a generation of scholars to reassess his work. Drawing on unpublished papers, Wearne describes Parson's religious background and his education and traces the impact of German and other social theory on his development as a scholar. The book concludes with a thorough and fresh reading of his classic work, The Social System.

Preface
Part I. Unravelling Talcott Parsons' theoretical development: 1. Introduction
Part II. Talcott Parsons: the roots of his thought: 2. Talcott Parsons in relation to the thought of his time
3. The Amherst papers
Part III. The Development of Theory: 4. Maz Weber and the vision of a unified social science
5. The position and prospects of sociology at Harvard in the 1930s
6. Convergence and its construction
Part IV. The Theory: 7. Conceptualising The Social System
8. Developing The Social System
9. Formulating The Social System
10. The Social System
Part V. Parsons' Theory as it Stood at 1951: 11. Conclusion
Appendix
List of references
Indexes.

Subject Areas: Social theory [JHBA]