Weber and Toennies: Comparative Sociology in Historical Perspective

Werner J. Cahnman

Dec 2011 · Transaction Publishers

About this ebook

This collection of selected essays by Werner J. Cahnman brings together out of scattered dispersion his writings about Max Weber, Ferdinand Toennies, and historical sociology. The great theoretical range and depth of his intellect and mastery of sociological thinking is apparent as he discusses the impact of romanticism on modern thought, and how Weber and Toennies both analyzed and reacted to modernity. Cahnman places Weber (1864-1920), the dominant figure in twentieth-century sociology, in the midst of the methodological controversies so characteristic of contemporary social science, and he fully discusses the overarching importance of Weberian ideal-type theory. Although less well-known than Weber, Toennies (1855-1936) was also a sociologist of the first rank. He is best remembered for his enormously influential twin concepts, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, which contributed to our understanding of the historical and sociological basis for the change from premodern to modern societies. The essays in this volume establish Toennies' intellectual connections to Karl Marx, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, and Herbert Spencer, and clarify his influence upon American sociology. Cahnman stood against strict separations between history and sociology, and his essays are all informed by a wonderful admixture of the theoretical and the concrete. They demonstrate how a genuine historical sociology, not unlike that of Weber and Toennies, can find and explain linkages between seemingly disparate events spanning time and place. This volume will be of interest to sociologists, political scientists, and intellectual historians.

About the author

Joseph B. Maier is professor emeritus of sociology, Rutgers University, and chairman of the interdisciplinary University Seminar on Contents and Methods of the Social Sciences at Columbia University. He has been Fulbright professor at the University of Frankfurt, Germany. Professor Maier is the author of numerous books and articles.

Zoltán Tarr was visiting Fulbright Scholar to Budapest, Hungary, and taught sociology and history at the City University of New York, the New School for Social Research, and Rutgers University. Some of the books he has authored or edited include Georg Lukács, Jews and Gentiles, and Foundations of the Frankfurt School of Social Research.

Judith T. Marcus is professor emeritus of sociology at the State University of New York -Potsdam. She has taught sociology at Kenyon College, Skidmore College, The College of Wooster, Rutgers University, and the New School for Social Research. She is the author of Georg Lukacs and Thomas Mann: A Study in the Sociology of Literature editor of Foundations of the Frankfurt School of Social Research and Georg Lukacs: Theory, Culture, and Politics.

Werner J. Cahnman (1902-1980) worked at the Berlin Industrial and Trade Chamber and the Counsel of the National Association of Bavaria before being arrested by the Gestapo.  Upon his release he went to the United States and taught at many American universities, including Rutgers University. His major contributions in social science were made through his work in the sociology of Jews and sociological theory. His books include Ferdinand Toennier and A New Evaluation and Sociology and History.