Macrosociology: An Introduction to Human Societies

From Book News, Inc.:
A general sociology text written from a comparative, historical, and evolutionary perspective. The most important changes in this updated edition are a reworked discussion of the rise of modern capitalism and revised and extended discussions of the recent economic and political changes in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or. 

Table of Contents 
1 Sociology and the Scientific Study of Human Societies. 
2 Biological Evolution and the Emergence of Human Society and Culture. 
3 Sociocultural Systems and the Nature of Sociolocultural Evolution. 
4 Preindustrial Societies. 
5 Precapitalist Economic Systems. 
6 The Origin and Evolution of Social Stratification. 
7 The Origins of Modern Capitalism. 
8 Capitalism and Socialism Since the Industrial Revolution. 
9 Capitalism and Economic Underdevelopment. 
10 Social Stratification in Industrial Societies. 
11 Political Evolution and the Origin of the State. 
12 Capitalism, Socialism, and the Evolution of the State. 
13 Comparative Patterns of Racial and Ethnic Stratification. 
14 The Gender Division of Labor and Gender Inequality. 
15 Marriage, Family, and Kinship in Comparative and Evolutionary Perspective. 
16 The Rise and Expansion of Mass Education. 
17 The Forms and Functions of Religious Belief and Action. 
18 Retospect and Prospect: The Past 10,000 Years and the Next 100. 

From the Publisher:
Book Description
The grand historical and social theorizing of early in this century-works that conjure up names like Marx, Spengler, Toynbee, and Sorokin-has been out of favor for many years. Only recently have two new schools of research, comparative civilizational studies and world systems analysis, emerged to examine societies in the broadest possible terms. These two intellectual movements have run on parallel tracks, seldom engaging in each other's work-until now! Sanderson invites the leading figures in these two groups-including Wallerstein, MacNeill, Frank, Wilkinson, Chase-Dunn, and Robertson-to compare and contrast their assumptions and conclusions about broad-scale social and historical change. A mixture of newly commissioned work and recently published articles, this book is unmatched as a useful introduction to current thinking about global historical change. 

From the Publisher:
In "Social Transformations: A General Theory of Historical Development" Stephen K. Sanderson develops a general theory of social evolution and uses it to explain the most important evolutionary transformations in human history and prehistory. In this expanded edition Sanderson has added a discussion of the biological constraints acting on humans that have helped to push social evolution along strikingly similar lines throughout the world. The new discussion places the theoretical arguments of "Social Transformations" in the context of an even more comprehensive theory of human social behavior. 

Table of Contents:
Preface 
Preface to the Expanded Edition 
1 Evolutionary Materialism: A General Theory of Historical Development 
The Theoretical Strategy of Evolutionary 
Materialism 
Evolutionary Materialism and World History 
2 The Neolithic Revolution 
Hunter--Gatherer Societies Before 10,000 BP 
The Worldwide Transition to Agriculture 
Explaining the Worldwide Transition to Agriculture 
Conclusions 
3 The Origin of Civilization and the State 
A Typology of Sociopolitical Evolution 
The Origin of Civilization and the State as a Process of Parallel Evolution 
Explaining the Origin of Civilization and the State 
The Pace of State Evolution 
Coda:Reconstructing Social Evolution Using 
the Comparative Method 
4 Agrarian States and their Evolutionary 
Dynamics 
Social Change in Agrarian States 
Agrarian States as Precapitalist World-Systems 
Social Devolution and the Collapse of Agrarian States 
Conclusion: The Evolutionary Dynamics of Agrarian States 
5 The Capitalist Revolution and the Beginnings 
of the Modern World 
Feudalism in World History 
The Nature of Capitalism 
The Origins of European Capitalism 
The Japanese Transition from Feudalism to 
Capitalism 
Theories of the Transition to Capitalism 
A New Interpretation 
6 The Evolution of the Modern World, I: The 
Expanding and Evolving Modern World-System
The Structure and Dynamics of the Modern World-System 
The Evolution of the Capitalist 
World-Economy, 
Hegemony in the World-Economy 
Development and Underdevelopment in the World-System 
Some Test Cases 
The Interstate System: The Political Side 
of the Modern World-System 
7 The Evolution of the Modern World, II: The 
Emergence of the Institutions of Modernity 
Industrialization in the West and Japan 
The Rise and Demise of State Socialism 
Stratification and Mobility in the Age of 
Modernity 
The Evolution of the Modern State 
The Emergence and Expansion of Mass Education 
The Scientific Revolution and the 
Development of Modern Science 
The Emergence of a Postindustrial Society? 
8 The Question of Progress 
Before the Rise of Modern Capitalism 
After the Rise of Modern Capitalism 
Conclusions 
9 The Evolving Future 
A Futuristic Scenario: W. Warren Wagar 
The Challenges: Population Growth and 
Ecological Degradation 
The Challenges: Nuclear War 
The Challenges: A World State 
The Challenges: Capitalism, Socialism, or Barbarism? 
The Crisis and Collapse of 
Capitalist-Sensate Culture 
10 Theoretical Reprise
Afterword to the Expanded Edition: Biological Constraints on Social Evolution 
References 
Index 

From the Publisher:
This book attempts a broad theoretical synthesis within the field of sociology and its closely allied sister discipline of anthropology. It draws together what the author considers the best of these disciplines' theoretical approaches into a synthesized theory called Darwinian conflict theory. This theory, in the most general sense, is a synthesis of the tradition of economic and ecological materialism and conflict theory stemming from Marx, Marvin Harris, and the tradition of biological materialism deriving from Darwin. The first half of the book is taken up with critiques of existing theoretical approaches; this then leads to the full elaboration, in formal propositional form, of synthetic theory. The second half of the book lays out the large amount of evidence, both qualitative and quantitative, that supports the synthesized theory. 

Table of Contents:
Preface
Introduction 
Part I: Sociological Explanations That Do Not Work
1 Functionalist Explanations
2 Social Constructionist Explanations
3 Stucturalist, Poststructuralist, and Postmodenist Explanations

Part II: Sociological Explanations That Work Better
4 Marxian Confict Explanations
5 Weberian Conflict Explanations

Part III: Sociological Explanatios That Work Best
6 Exchange and Rational Choice Explanations
7 Cultural Materialist Explanations
8 Sociobiological Explanation

Part IV: Toward Theoretical Synthesis
9 Darwinian Conflict Theory: A Unified Evolutionary Theroy of Human Society

Part V: Darwinian Conflict Theory: The Weight of the Evidence
10 Reproductive Behavior
11 Human Sexuality
12 Sex and Gender
13 Marriage, Family, and Kinship
14 Economic Behavior and Economic Systems
15 Social Hierarchies
16 Politics and War
Epilogue
References
Index