Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) was a Protestant preacher, an influential religious thinker, and an important moral guide in mid-twentieth-century America. But what does he have to say to us now? In what way does he inform the thinking of political leaders and commentators from Barack Obama and Madeleine Albright to David Brooks and Walter Russell Mead, all of whom acknowledge his influence? In this lively overview of Niebuhr's career, Charles Lemert analyzes why interest in Niebuhr is rising and how Niebuhr provides the answers we ache for in the face of seismic shifts in the global order.
In the middle of the twentieth century, having outgrown a theological liberalism, Niebuhr challenged and rethought the nonsocialist Left in American politics. He developed a political realism that refused to sacrifice ideals to mere pragmatism, or politics to bitterness and greed. He examined the problem of morality in an immoral society and reimagined the balance between rights and freedom for the individual and social justice for the many. With brevity and deep insight, Lemert shows how Niebuhr's ideas illuminate our most difficult questions today.

Why Niebuhr Matters (Why X Matters Series)

Biographies & Memoirs

Lemert, Charles

Leaders & Notable People

Yale University Press

A leading social theorist analyzes how and why Niebuhr's revival has taken place, ultimately arguing for his political and moral relevance today Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) was a Protestant preacher, an influential religious thinker, and an important moral guide in mid-twentieth-century America. But what does he have to say to us now? In what way does he inform the thinking of political leaders and commentators from Barack Obama and Madeleine Albright to David Brooks and Walter Russell Mead, all of whom acknowledge his influence? In this lively overview of Niebuhr's career, Charles Lemert analyzes why interest in Niebuhr is rising and how Niebuhr provides the answers we ache for in the face of seismic shifts in the global order.
In the middle of the twentieth century, having outgrown a theological liberalism, Niebuhr challenged and rethought the nonsocialist Left in American politics. He developed a political realism that refused to sacrifice ideals to mere pragmatism, or politics to bitterness and greed. He examined the problem of morality in an immoral society and reimagined the balance between rights and freedom for the individual and social justice for the many. With brevity and deep insight, Lemert shows how Niebuhr's ideas illuminate our most difficult questions today.

Product Description 
Social Theory is more than a reader. Feminists, race theorists, decolonizing leaders, and others are thoughtfully introduced by Charles Lemert’s substantial commentaries. Social Theory has always sought to keep up with the new while respecting the old―from Durkheim and Weber to Latinx and LGBTQ pioneers. When the book first appeared it was, as it remains, a collection of selections from those who have changed how we think about social things. Today, as the world is threatened by a global wave of anti-democratic movements, Social Theory adds a new early section to remind us of the origins of democratic values in the 1700s. A new concluding section focuses the theoretical mind on how, in the 2020s, social theorists are rethinking the world in order to better understand and resist the menace of anti-democratic movements. 
 Review 
"This anthology has helped transform social theory. Charles Lemert was a pioneer in bringing cultural diversity and globalization into dialog with classical sociology. The collection continues to break new ground today."\nCraig Calhoun, Arizona State University, USA\n"I fell in love with social theory because of this book. Charles Lemert’s reader provides an indispensable overview of the theories that shaped sociology as a discipline. His carefully curated collection leaves no stone unturned in its pursuit of a truly comprehensive guide to social theory, encompassing both well-known theorists and those whose voices were marginalized until recently. Thus, the book places the writings of Marx, Weber, Simmel, Durkheim, Freud, Mead, James, Parsons, Merton and Blumer alongside those of notable women and scholars of color, including Du Bois, Anna Julia Cooper, Jane Addams, Simone de Beauvoir, Franz Fanon, Dorothy Smith, Patricia Hill Collins, and Judith Butler. Equally impressive is the range of topics the Lemert’s book covers, from stratification, power, culture, social order, capitalism, and revolution to contemporary topics such as deviance, globalization, postmodernism, symbolic interaction, feminist theory, critical race theory, queer theory, semiotics, ethnography, ethnomethodology, neoliberalism, and world systems theory. The book was groundbreaking in its scope and inclusiveness when it was first published over thirty years ago, and it continues to set the standard for theory readers today."\nWaverly Duck, University of Pittsburgh, USA 
"This book presents a provocative, wide-angle view of the history of social theory. Well chosen selections from the new social movements as well as the classics and recent mainstream make this book a fine introduction to courses in the social sciences." 
Sandra Harding, University of California, Los Angeles,USA 
 About the Author 
Charles Lemert is University Professor and Andrus Professor of Social Theory Emeritus at Wesleyan University. Among his books are The Structural Lie: Small Clues to Global Things (2011), Why Niebuhr Matters (2011), Uncertain Worlds: World-Systems Analysis in Changing Times (2013, with Immanuel Wallerstein and Carlos Aguirre Rojas), and Globalization: Introduction to the End of the Known World (2015). He is at work on The Uncertain Future of Capitalism (2021, with Kristin Plys) and, among other books, Uncertainties of Time: The Past and Future TimeSpace (with Immanuel Wallerstein, posthumously).

Social Theory: The Multicultural, Global, and Classic Readings

History

Americas

Routledge

Social Theory is more than a reader. Feminists, race theorists, decolonizing leaders, and others are thoughtfully introduced by Charles Lemert’s substantial commentaries. Social Theory has always sought to keep up with the new while respecting the old―from Durkheim and Weber to Latinx and LGBTQ pioneers. When the book first appeared it was, as it remains, a collection of selections from those who have changed how we think about social things. Today, as the world is threatened by a global wave of anti-democratic movements, Social Theory adds a new early section to remind us of the origins of democratic values in the 1700s. A new concluding section focuses the theoretical mind on how, in the 2020s, social theorists are rethinking the world in order to better understand and resist the menace of anti-democratic movements.

Social Theory

This book provides an illuminating introduction to a collection of readings on social theory and provides an overview of the socio-historical context and delineation of key thinkers and texts. It includes a new section exploring social theory at the limits of the social.

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

The New Individualism: The Emotional Costs of Globalization REVISED EDITION

Corporate networking, compulsive consumerism, plastic surgery, therapeutic tribulations, instant identity makeovers and reality TV: welcome to life in our increasingly individualized world. In this dazzling book, Anthony Elliott and Charles Lemert explore the culture of the ‘new individualism’ generated by global capitalism and develop a major new perspective on people’s emotional experiences of globalization. The New Individualism offers fascinating, but disturbing, accounts of people struggling to cope with a new individualism reshaping the world today. There is Larry, a high-tech executive ‘emotionally wrecked by success’; there is Ruth, a married woman in her late fifties, typing real-time erotica in cyberspace; there is Norman, a recovering drug addict infected with HIV, reinventing himself by accepting the deadly worlds for what they are; and Caoimhe and Annie, two little girls only beginning to explore the disorientating effects of the new individualism. This book powerfully cuts against the grain of current orthodoxies that view globalization as corrosive of private life. Elliott and Lemert argue that today’s worlds are not only risky but deadly. Yet there is hope, the authors contend, beyond the complexities. Voted into the 50 Best Management Books For 2006 by The Australian Financial Review.

Elliott, Anthony

Lemert, Prof Charles

Philosophy

Introduction to Contemporary Social Theory

In this comprehensive, stylish and accessible introduction to contemporary social theory, Anthony Elliott and Charles Lemert examine the major theoretical traditions from the Frankfurt School to globalization and beyond. When first published, the book’s wide range set new standards for introductory textbooks – social theorists discussed include Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, Anthony Giddens, Pierre Bourdieu, Julia Kristeva, Jurgen Habermas, Judith Butler, Slavoj Zizek, Manuel Castells, Ulrich Beck, Zygmunt Bauman, Giorgio Agamben and Manuel De Landa. Extensively developed to take into account significant recent developments in American social theory, the book offers chapters on American pragmatism, structural functionalism, ethnomethodology, black feminist thought and world-systems theory. American traditions of social theory are brought powerfully to life in treatments of intellectuals ranging from William James to Robert K. Merton, David Riesman to Randall Collins, and Patricia Hill Collins to Saskia Sassen. Introduction to Contemporary Social Theory combines lively exposition and clarity with reflective social critique and original insights, and is a superb textbook with which to navigate the twists and turns of contemporary social theory as taught in the disciplines of sociology, politics, history, cultural studies and many more.

Dark Thoughts

In Dark Thoughts, eminent sociologist Charles Lemert dares to say, and explain, what everyone already knows - that the modern world was built on the need of white people to pretend they are not as dark as the next person. Delving poignantly into the history and literature of domination, Lemert retells key moments of the twentieth-century by profiling figures like W.E.B. DuBois, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Anna Julia Cooper, Nella Larson, Malcolm X, and Muhammad Ali. In a rare and unflinching look at his own complicated history, Lemert also explores his own racism, his struggle with the suicide of his oldest son, as well as growing up as the virtual son of a black mother and his life now as the real father of an African-American daughter. Dark Thoughts speaks to the most urgent social issues at the beginning of the twenty-first century: race relations, multiculturalism, and social justice.

Dark Thoughts: Race and the Eclipse of Society

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Lemert, Charles. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Lemert, Charles

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Lemert, Charles. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Why Niebuhr Matters (Why X Matters Series)

Why Niebuhr Matters (Why X Matters Series)

Social Theory: The Multicultural, Global, and Classic Readings

Social Theory

Social Theory: The Multicultural, Global, and Classic Readings

The New Individualism: The Emotional Costs of Globalization REVISED EDITION

Introduction to Contemporary Social Theory

Introduction to Contemporary Social Theory

Dark Thoughts: Race and the Eclipse of Society

Dark Thoughts