Lexington Books Social Theory for Old and New Modernities: Essays on Society and Culture, 1976-2005

Franco Ferrarotti is widely regarded as the founder of postwar Italian sociology. Along with such figures as Leo Strauss, Edward Shils, David Riesman, Robert Merton, and Ralf Dahrendorf, he established the terms and texts of contemporary sociology after the Second World War.Social Theory for Old and New Modernities is a collection of Ferrarotti's essays that brings his work back into the forefront of sociology. His writings, on theory and ethnographic research, on immigration and multiculturalism, on religion and secularization, speak directly to today's social and political dilemmas and crises and offer sociologists a critical and enlivened vision of their discipline. Maria Macioti's Introduction locates Franco Ferrarotti's work within his remarkable life, that of a politician, intellectual, and social scientist living amidst the social and political changes of the last half of the twentieth century, anticipating the changes and challenges of the twenty-first. E. Doyle McCarthy is the editor of this collection. Review This book of essays provides an important contribution on a wide range of topics and problems of theory, culture, and society in the late 20th Century. It reflects the professional interest of a scintillating and insightful critic of contemporary cultural trends and sociological theories, Franco Ferrarotti, who is known on both sides of the Atlantic as a leading European sociologist and a foremost commentator on the crises of the Western European societies.--Angela Zanotti, professor of sociology, University of Ferrara, ItalySearching, independent, critical and passionate, Franco Ferrarotti writes with the keenest theoretical eye and with profound historical understanding. The remarkably wide-ranging studies collected here display the sociological imagination at its brightest. As a singular whole, this collection offers a veritable education in social theory and the logic of social inquiry.--Sidney Plotkin, Professor of Political Science, Vassar College and President, International Thorstein Veblen Association About the Author Franco Ferrarotti is Professor Emeritus and Director of the Doctoral Program in Sociology at the University of Rome, as well as Editor ofLa Critica Sociologica. E. Doyle McCarthy, the editor of this collection, is Professor of Sociology at Fordham University, New York.