Weber and Toennies Comparative Sociology in Historical Perspective

This collection of selected essays by Werner J. Cahnman brings together out of scattered dispersion his writings about Max Weber, Ferdinand Toennies, and historical sociology. The great theoretical range and depth of his intellect and mastery of sociological thinking is apparent as he discusses the impact of romanticism on modern thought, and how Weber and Toennies both analysed and reacted to modernity.

Cahnman places Weber (1864-1920), the dominant figure in twentieth-century sociology, in the midst of the methodological controversies so characteristic of contemporary social science, and he fully discusses the overarching importance of Weberian ideal-type theory. Although less well-known than Weber, Toennies (1855-1936) was also a sociologist of the first rank. He is best remembered for his enormously influential twin concepts, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, which contributed to our understanding of the historical and sociological basis for the change from premodern to modern societies. The essays in this volume establish Toennies' intellectual connections to Karl Marx, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, and Herbert Spencer, and clarify his influence upon American sociology.

Cahnman stood against strict separations between history and sociology, and his essays are all informed by a wonderful admixture of the theoretical and the concrete. They demonstrate how a genuine historical sociology, not unlike that of Weber and Toennies, can find and explain linkages between seemingly disparate events spanning time and place. This volume will be of interest to sociologists, political scientists, and intellectual historians.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I Perspectives on Max Weber

1 Max Weber and the Methodological Controversy in the Social Sciences

2 Ideal-Type Theory: Max Weber's Concept and Some of Its Derivations

3 Notes on The Sociology of Religion by Max Weber

4 A Review: Mitzman's Iron Cage

Part II Comparative Approach to Toennies

5 Toennies and Marx: Evaluation

6 Toennies and Spencer: Evaluation

7 Toennies and Weber: Comparison

8 Toennies and Durkheim

9 Toennies and Social Change

10 Toennies, Durkheim, and Weber

11 Toennies in America

12 A Research Note on Phenomenology and Symbolic Interactionism

Part III Essays in Historical Sociology Pure, Applied, and Empirical

13 Historical Sociology: What It Is and What It Is Not

14 Vico and Historical Sociology

15 Starting Points in Sociology: Hobbes, Toennies, Vico

16 The Historical Sociology of Cities: A Critical Review

17 How Cities Grew . . .

18 The Rise of Civilization as a Paradigm of Social Change

Part IV Religion, Race, and Ethnicity

19 Religion and Nationality

20 Adolph Fischhof and the Problem of the Reconciliation of Nationalities

21 Nature and Varieties of Ethnicity

22 The Mediterranean and Caribbean Regions: A Comparison in Race and Culture Contacts

Appendix: Rudolf Hess; or, An Introduction to the Emergence of German Geopolitics: An Autobiographical Account

Index