Built upon a series of critical encounters with major figures in classical and present-day social and political thought, this volume offers not only a challenging critique of major traditions of social and political analysis, but unique insights into the ideas which Giddens has developed over the past two decades.

Anthony Giddensis Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Preface.

Introduction.

1. Politics and Sociology in the Thought of Max Weber.

2. Marx, Weber and the Development of Capitalism.

3. Durkheim's Political Sociology.

4. Durkheim and the Question of Individualism.

5. Comte, Popper and Positivism.

6. 'Power' in the Writings of Talcott Parsons.

7. The Improbable Guru: Re-reading Marcuse.

8. Garfinkel, Ethnomethodology and Hermeneutics.

9. Habermas on Labour and Interaction.

10. Foucault, Nietzsche and Marx.

Notes.

Index.