This second of three volumes sets out a general account of the structure and evolution of human societies. The author argues first that societies are to be defined as sets of roles whose incumbents are competitors for access to, or control of, the means of production, persuasion and coercion; and second, that the process by which societies evolve is one of competitive selection of the practices by which roles are defined analagous, but not reducible, to natural selection. He illustrates and tests these theses with evidence drawn from the whole range of societies documented in the historical and ethnographic record. The result is an original, powerful and far-reaching reformulation of evolutionary sociological theory which will make it possible to do for the classification and analysis of societies what Darwin and his successors have done for the classification and analysis of species.
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'This is a masterpiece: in its scope and its command of historical and ethnographic detail, it is reminiscent of Economy and Society; in its systematization more gripping.' David Lockwood
'It is an astonishing bravura performance ... I have not come across another approach to comparative history which has impressed me so much.' Eric Hobsbawm
'This is an important and remarkable book. It is extremely ambitious offering nothing less than a general theory of human society, and the confrontation of that theory with the historical material. The quality of the material is commensurate with the ambition.' Ernest Gellner
'It is an astonishing bravura performance ... I have not come across another approach to comparative history which has impressed me so much.' Eric Hobsbawm
'This is an important and remarkable book. It is extremely ambitious offering nothing less than a general theory of human society, and the confrontation of that theory with the historical material. The quality of the material is commensurate with the ambition.' Ernest Gellner
Book Description
The concluding volume to W. G. Runciman's magisterial treatise applies his methodological distinction between reportage, explanation, description, and evaluation expounded in Volume I and the theory of social selection expounded in Volume II to the particular case of twentieth-century English society.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
I. Sociology begins at the point at which nature evolves into culture. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
dominant systact, systactic structure, systactic identity, institutional catchment area, systactic interest, systactic consciousness, different systacts, recombinant practices, systactic location, topmost role, systactic origin, dependent cultivators, absolutist mode, mutant practices, central governmental roles, subordinate cultivators, rival observers, monarchical role, evaluative presuppositions, hoplite revolution, power attaching, citizen mode, collective mobility, substantive social theory, located roles Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Roman Empire, Soviet Union, Anglo-Saxon England, North Italian, Republican Rome, Frederick the Great, Middle Ages, Archaic Greece, Second World War, Sung China, Frederick William, Ottoman Turkey, Tokugawa Japan, Archaic Greek, Classical Greece, French Revolution, Latin American, West African, Meiji Japan, Meiji Restoration, New Guinea, South Africa, Catherine the Great, Classical Rome New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
I. Sociology begins at the point at which nature evolves into culture. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
dominant systact, systactic structure, systactic identity, institutional catchment area, systactic interest, systactic consciousness, different systacts, recombinant practices, systactic location, topmost role, systactic origin, dependent cultivators, absolutist mode, mutant practices, central governmental roles, subordinate cultivators, rival observers, monarchical role, evaluative presuppositions, hoplite revolution, power attaching, citizen mode, collective mobility, substantive social theory, located roles Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Roman Empire, Soviet Union, Anglo-Saxon England, North Italian, Republican Rome, Frederick the Great, Middle Ages, Archaic Greece, Second World War, Sung China, Frederick William, Ottoman Turkey, Tokugawa Japan, Archaic Greek, Classical Greece, French Revolution, Latin American, West African, Meiji Japan, Meiji Restoration, New Guinea, South Africa, Catherine the Great, Classical Rome New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
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100
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- Social Stratification in Africa by Arthur Tuden in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- The Wealth of Nations (Bantam Classics) by Adam Smith on page 77, and Back Matter
- On the Origin of Species (Penguin Classics) by Charles Darwin on page 449, and Back Matter
- Ancient Egypt: A Social History by B. G. Trigger in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin on page 449, and Back Matter
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- The Site of the Social: A Philosophical Account of the Constitution of Social Life and Change by Theodore R. Schatzki on 5 pages
- The Sovereign State and Its Competitors by Hendrik Spruyt on 5 pages
- Plausible Worlds: Possibility and Understanding in History and the Social Sciences by Geoffrey Hawthorn on page 124, page 163, and page 169
- Emancipation, the Media, and Modernity: Arguments about the Media and Social Theory by Nicholas Garnham on page 22, page 25, and Back Matter
- Social Power and the Turkish State by Tim Jacoby on page 11, page 26, and Back Matter
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