Revitalizing the Classics: What Past Social Theorists Can Teach Us Today

Revitalizing the Classics: What Past Social Theorists Can Teach Us Today by Tony Simmons. Revitalizing the Classics is a lively introductory text that relates classical social theories to contemporary social events. This updated definition of “the classics” avoids the Eurocentrism and androcentrism of many textbooks of social theory by including both non-European and women social thinkers. Besides highlighting the work of Ibn Khaldun and first-wave feminist scholars, this book utilizes interactive figures, original source sidebars, and current illustrative examples to provide a critical alternative to the standard texts in the field. In the process, Tony Simmons shows just how relevant classical social theories are in our present world, offering us analysis and clarification of a range of issues, from war, poverty, and environmental destruction to the sensory overload experienced in the digital age, and even our personal relationships and interactions. Social theories are helpful – even necessary – to help us understand and, most importantly, be critical of the issues, systems, and institutions in our world today. FPC. ISBN: 9781552665558, $44.95, 376 pp.