The Social Thought of Max Weber (Sage Social Thinkers Series, 2016)

Stephen Kalberg contends in this volume that a broader reading of this major Founder of modern social science is long overdue.   Max Weber’s numerous conceptual contributions are all examined, as well as his “Protestant ethic  thesis.”  However, Kalberg maintains that Weber’s greatest contribution is to be found in his often-neglected investigations of entire civilizations.   His big picture themes move here to the forefront: his charting of the uniqueness of China, India, and the West, his discussion of the multiple causes behind their particular trajectories, and his distinct comparative-historical approach anchored in “interpretive understanding”  procedures.   By reconstructing Weber’s analysis of the origin and expansion of the American civic sphere, this volume also illustrates how his research strategies can be applied.

The Social Thought of Max Weber (Social Thinkers Series)

The Social Thought of Max Weber (Sage Social Thinkers Series, 2016)

Stephen Kalberg contends in this volume that a broader reading of this major Founder of modern social science is long overdue.   Max Weber’s numerous conceptual contributions are all examined, as well as his “Protestant ethic  thesis.”  However, Kalberg maintains that Weber’s greatest contribution is to be found in his often-neglected investigations of entire civilizations.   His big picture themes move here to the forefront: his charting of the uniqueness of China, India, and the West, his discussion of the multiple causes behind their particular trajectories, and his distinct comparative-historical approach anchored in “interpretive understanding”  procedures.   By reconstructing Weber’s analysis of the origin and expansion of the American civic sphere, this volume also illustrates how his research strategies can be applied.

The Social Thought of Max Weber (Social Thinkers Series)

New book: The Sociology of Islam: Knowledge, Power and Civility

Wiley-Blackwell Armando Salvatore http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118662644.html

The Sociology of Islam provides an accessible introduction to this emerging field of inquiry, teaching and debate. The study is located at the crucial intersection between a variety of disciplines in the social sciences and the humanities. It discusses the long-term dynamics of Islam as both a religion and as a social, political and cultural force. The volume focuses on ideas of knowledge, power and civility to provide students and readers with analytic and critical thinking frameworks for understanding the complex social facets of Islamic traditions and institutions. The study of the sociology of Islam improves the understanding of Islam as a diverse force that drives a variety of social and political arrangements.

Delving into both conceptual questions and historical interpretations, The Sociology of Islam is a transdisciplinary, comparative resource for students, scholars, and policy makers seeking to understand Islam’s complex changes throughout history and its impact on the modern world.

Sociologists of religion have long been awaiting a successor volume to Brian Turner ‘s pathbreaking but now dated Weber and Islam (1974). Armando Salvatore’s new book provides just this update and much more. Ranging across a host of critical case studies and theoretical issues, Salvatore provides a masterful account of religious ethics, rationalization, and civility across the breadth of the Muslim world, from early times to today. The result is a book of deep intellectual insight, important, not just for the sociology of Islam, but for scholars and students interested in religion, ethics, and modernity in all civilizational traditions. Robert Hefner, Boston University The sociology of Islam has been a late and controversial addition to the sociology of religion. This field of research has been the principal target of the critique of Orientalism and after 9/11 the study of Islam became heavily politicized. Terrorist attacks in Paris and Beirut have only compounded the long-standing difficulties of objective interpretation and understanding. In the first volume of what promises to be a major three volume masterpiece, Armando Salvatore steers a careful and judicious course through the various pitfalls that attend the field. The result

is an academic triumph combining a sweeping historical vision of Islam with an analytical framework that is structured by the theme of knowledge-power. One waits with huge excitement for the delivery of the remaining volumes. Bryan Turner, City University of New York A brilliant, pioneering effort to explain the cosmopolitan ethos within Islamicate civilization, The Sociology of Islam encompasses all the terminological boldness of Marshal Hodgson, making the Persianate and Islamicate elements of civic cosmopolitanism, across the vast Afro-Eurasian ecumene, accessible to the widest possible readership in both the humanities and the social sciences. Bruce B. Lawrence, author of Who is Allah? (2015)

Armando Salvatore is Professor of Global Religious Studies at McGill University, Montreal, and Professor at the Centre for Arab & Islamic Studies of the Australian National University, Canberra. His work as a social scientist emphasizes transregional comparison and explores the Islamic ecumene’s socio-political trajectories as well as transcultural interconnections. As a complement to The Sociology of Islam he is editing The Wiley Blackwell History of Islam. Among his previous works are Islam and the Political Discourse of Modernity (1997), Public Islam and the Common Good (edited with Dale F. Eickelman, 2004), The Public Sphere: Liberal Modernity, Catholicism and Islam (2007), and Islam and Modernity: Key Issues and Debates (edited with Muhammad Khalid Masud and Martin van Bruinessen, 2009).

New book: The Sociology of Islam: Knowledge, Power and Civility

Wiley-Blackwell Armando Salvatore http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118662644.html

The Sociology of Islam provides an accessible introduction to this emerging field of inquiry, teaching and debate. The study is located at the crucial intersection between a variety of disciplines in the social sciences and the humanities. It discusses the long-term dynamics of Islam as both a religion and as a social, political and cultural force. The volume focuses on ideas of knowledge, power and civility to provide students and readers with analytic and critical thinking frameworks for understanding the complex social facets of Islamic traditions and institutions. The study of the sociology of Islam improves the understanding of Islam as a diverse force that drives a variety of social and political arrangements.

Delving into both conceptual questions and historical interpretations, The Sociology of Islam is a transdisciplinary, comparative resource for students, scholars, and policy makers seeking to understand Islam’s complex changes throughout history and its impact on the modern world.

Sociologists of religion have long been awaiting a successor volume to Brian Turner ‘s pathbreaking but now dated Weber and Islam (1974). Armando Salvatore’s new book provides just this update and much more. Ranging across a host of critical case studies and theoretical issues, Salvatore provides a masterful account of religious ethics, rationalization, and civility across the breadth of the Muslim world, from early times to today. The result is a book of deep intellectual insight, important, not just for the sociology of Islam, but for scholars and students interested in religion, ethics, and modernity in all civilizational traditions. Robert Hefner, Boston University The sociology of Islam has been a late and controversial addition to the sociology of religion. This field of research has been the principal target of the critique of Orientalism and after 9/11 the study of Islam became heavily politicized. Terrorist attacks in Paris and Beirut have only compounded the long-standing difficulties of objective interpretation and understanding. In the first volume of what promises to be a major three volume masterpiece, Armando Salvatore steers a careful and judicious course through the various pitfalls that attend the field. The result

is an academic triumph combining a sweeping historical vision of Islam with an analytical framework that is structured by the theme of knowledge-power. One waits with huge excitement for the delivery of the remaining volumes. Bryan Turner, City University of New York A brilliant, pioneering effort to explain the cosmopolitan ethos within Islamicate civilization, The Sociology of Islam encompasses all the terminological boldness of Marshal Hodgson, making the Persianate and Islamicate elements of civic cosmopolitanism, across the vast Afro-Eurasian ecumene, accessible to the widest possible readership in both the humanities and the social sciences. Bruce B. Lawrence, author of Who is Allah? (2015)

Armando Salvatore is Professor of Global Religious Studies at McGill University, Montreal, and Professor at the Centre for Arab & Islamic Studies of the Australian National University, Canberra. His work as a social scientist emphasizes transregional comparison and explores the Islamic ecumene’s socio-political trajectories as well as transcultural interconnections. As a complement to The Sociology of Islam he is editing The Wiley Blackwell History of Islam. Among his previous works are Islam and the Political Discourse of Modernity (1997), Public Islam and the Common Good (edited with Dale F. Eickelman, 2004), The Public Sphere: Liberal Modernity, Catholicism and Islam (2007), and Islam and Modernity: Key Issues and Debates (edited with Muhammad Khalid Masud and Martin van Bruinessen, 2009).