Social Transformations: A General Theory of Historical Development

by Stephen K. Sanderson

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780847691876
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	05/28/1999
Edition description:	EXPANDED
Pages:	496
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.25(d)

About the Author

Stephen K. Sanderson is professor of sociology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Evolutionary Material: A General Theory of Historical Development Chapter 2 The Neolithic Revolution Chapter 3 The Origin of Civilization and the State Chapter 4 Agrarian States and their Evolutionary Dynamics Chapter 5 The Capitalist Revolution and the Beginnings of the Modern World Chapter 6 The Evolution of the Modern World, I: The Expanding and Evolving Modern World-System Chapter 7 The Evolution of the Modern World, II: The Emergence of the Institutions of Modernity Chapter 8 The Question of Progress Chapter 9 The Evolving Future Chapter 10 Theoretical Reprise

Editorial Reviews

The book provides even-handed, comprehensible accounts of the questions under dispute and of the contributions made by various synthesizers to resolution of those questions. As a historiographic and synthetic complement to a conventional world history, Social Transformations would serve teachers quite well.

Canadian Journal of History

Continues the work Sanderson (sociology, Indiana U. of Pennsylvania) began with his 1990 by outlining an evolutionary interpretation of world history that he calls evolutionary materialism. He focuses on what appears to him the most important transformations in human history: the neolithic revolution, the origin of civilization and the state, and the transition from feudalism to capitalism that ushered in the modern world in western Europe and Japan. To the first edition, for which he mentions no date, he has appended an abbreviated account of how the theory can incorporate biological constraints; he intends to treat that more fully in the future. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)

Booknews

With this book Stephen Sanderson has presented a profound, richly detailed, and erudite analysis of worldwide social evolution over the past 10,000 years.. .. This comprehensive, authoritative and readable volume is a major contribution to the theory of societal development. I would strongly recommend this book for advanced courses on social change, comparative social systems, and historical sociology.

Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology

Among much interesting recent work in historical sociology there has been nothing more ambitious than this book by sociologist Stephen Sanderson.. .. Whatever the future of 'evolutionary materialism' may be, Sanderson has done much to justify the enterprise of historical sociology and his work can be recommended without reserve to both sociologists and historians.

History and Theory