Four Sociological Traditions

This was my first book on sociology, and I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed Collins' description of the branches that compose modern sociology and the frontiers of knowledge in the field. As an economist, I was especially interested in the "rational" school, and was not disappointed. Of course many of the scholar transcend economics and sociology (Herbert Simon, Mancur Olson), but I found it interesting to see concepts that I had treated as predominantly economic from a different perspective. Also interesting to read about Marx in the context of all other who followed him in the "conflict" tradition. This book is great for those who would like to have an overall good knowledge of sociology without spending the time to read the actual founders of the field's works.

Collins' work is a must for the serious scholar of sociology. He is able to "boil-down" the four major theories in sociology, without resorting to the confounding language of the original authors. This work succinctly outlines the four major theories and gives some of the more lucid quotes of the "fathers" of classical theory. Finally a sociology text that does not presume familiarity with the subject matter.