Books like On Theoretical Sociology

One of the few true geniuses in sociology, he lifted the field up into new and innovation dimensions. If there were a Nobel Prize in sociology, he would most likely get it, followed by the three people above (Merton, Mills, and Gouldner). I knew him well. He could walk into a room and an hour later tell you all the power plays, conflicts, and inside dope.

Some of his terms have entered our language: front-stage, back stage (meaning what goes on in front of an audience, meaning your social interactions) are different from what goes on backstage, behind the scenes, kind of like a play. His book, Stigma, is used in many fascinating ways; not just someone blind or disfigured but also a Black person, a gay person, or a hippy; but mostly he shows in terrifying ways, how people hide or cope with their “stigma”—the subtitle tells it all… show more.

I could easily have chosen The Power Elite, White Collar, or The Causes of World War Three; in fact, this list could have been composed of just books by Mills. Mills came along when the dominant theoretical outlook was a kind of conservative “functionalism” led by a now somewhat neglected Harvard sociologist named Talcott Parsons and his “grand theories” that could explain “everything."

These have fallen by the wayside and been replaced by Robert Merton's “theories of the middle range” and micro-theories. More powerfully, grand theory and functionalism were replaced by conflict theory; that is, we learn more about a society from its conflicts than from its harmony. But in truth, one needs both perspectives to understand society.

In fact several of his other books are classics like Enter Plato or For Sociology. I knew Gouldner. Gouldner felt you could not have remote sociology, that sociology has its subjective aspects, and that one’s biases must be spoken and told upfront and will always be there.

Furthermore, sociologists whether Marxist or liberal academic can never be purely “value-free” but are necessarily political and ideological. This may not be a surprise today in 2025, but back in 1970, it was a bombshell since sociology was supposed to be like all sciences: totally objective, impartial, and detached.

The student and Black protests of the late 1960s changed all that.

This 1899 book is a classic not only in theory but in method; it was one of the first to analyze suicide rates in France according to one's religion, age, sex, marital status, and other factors, and Durkheim brilliantly explained three types of suicide: altruistic, egoistic, and anomic.

I explained these three on a national radio show (Dan Rea WBZ radio 1030 am Boston news radio), and it was still understandable 125 years later. Altruistic suicide is like when a soldier lands on a grenade to save his comrades; he or she gives her life for others; anomic suicide is a person who has given up on life due to alcoholism, mental illness, or drugs; the homeless “bum” is an example; and egoistic suicide is the most common and most well-known: it is when someone suddenly loses his money or his girlfriend or is hit with a scandal dealing with… show more.

As I said, sociology can be filled with inscrutable jargon, but there are still classic theory books that I recommend.

Ok, it pays to have taken some sociology classes, but the following two books are important: Robert K. Merton’s Social Theory and Social Structure with its twin essays: the bearing of social theory on research and the bearing of research on social theory.

But despite Merton’s elegant theorizing, he was a genius at coining phrases that have entered out language: anomie, bureaucratic structure, reference groups, the self-fulfilling prophecy, and my favorite, actually taken from the Bible—the Mathew Effect, those who have will have more and those who don’t have will have less; meaning if you get a lot of honors, you’ll get more honors; if you have a lot of money, you’ll get more money and the poor people on the bottom will get few honors and money and will… show more.

Riess brought together nine of the most thoughtful historians and one outstanding non-fiction writer who understands the impact sports has made on American Jewish identity and culture.

I read these engrossing essays and can recommend them as a useful complement to Levine’s work and together they deepened my thinking on a subject that is more than just an academic exercise for me.

Mainstream economic accounts of culture are prone to treat culture as a set of norms or informal institutions which constrain economic behavior: ‘don’t charge interest,’ ‘don’t sell kidneys,’ or ‘always tip at a bar’. Storr presents an alternative account of culture as the animating spirit of an economy, which he illustrates through various entrepreneurial spirits which shape the direction of an economy. This book is the perfect combination of serious anthropological theory (Geertz) and an appreciation of the market process. Culture is not that which obstructs market, but that what brings economies to life. 

Szuchman and Anderson use the framework of economics principles to look at marital relationships. Though the book was written as more of a self-help marriage guide, it’s an excellent introductory primer to many economic theories. 

Every chapter introduces and defines an economic theory–including moral hazard, comparative advantage, loss aversion, supply and demand, and incentives. Then the authors profile a married couple in crisis and describe how the economic theory fits the marital problem.

It’s a fascinating way of narrowing the larger issues of how to allocate scarce resources into the domestic sphere. I found applying economic theories to married couple fights helped me better understand economics as a whole, and the ways I make decisions in every part of my life.

Additionally, this book can be laugh-out-loud funny.

One of the most influential thinkers and writers on feminist film theory, Mulvey’s groundbreaking essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” is one of many that tackle the representation of women in art and culture and how these mediums might impede or aid the women’s movement.

Mulvey was a great resource for my own book in analysing the overt sexualisation of female characters on screen to cater to the so-called Male Gaze and misogynistic pleasures.

There has been more “grassroots” advocacy in the last 25 years than during any 25-year period in U.S. history. The Black Lives Matter, pro-Trump, anti-Trump, New Christian Right, and Tea Party movements are some of the biggest mass movements in our history.

When most people hear the word “grassroots,” they think of ordinary citizens mobilizing, marching, or protesting on important issues. But in this book, sociologist Edward Walker shows us that behind many instances of seemingly “grassroots” advocacy are legions of political consultants who sell their ability to mobilize ordinary citizens to their wealthy clients, including giant corporations and business-oriented interest groups.

This book is epiphanic. Most of us realize on some level that political consulting is a big business. But most of us—and I mean regular people and people like me who study politics for a living—assume that political consultants advise political parties and candidates for office on the… show more.