Gerhard Lenski's Sociological Theories: Assessments, Extensions, New Directions

Bringing together some of sociology's most distinguished scholars, Gerhard Lenski's Sociological Theories: Assessments, Extensions, New Directionscritically assesses the influential social theories and monumental intellectual contributions of Gerhard Lenski in and beyond the discipline of sociology. For more than six decades, Lenski has been one of the most prominent and significant theorists of religion, social stratification, and ecological-evolutionary explanations of human societies. This is the first book to provide a systematic evaluation of Lenski's sociological career and lifetime body of work, the ways in which his theories have been applied and extended in multiple disciplines, and the most recent developments and new directions in the study of social change, inequality, differentiation, and evolution in human societies. Following the editor's introduction to Lenski's life, career, and influences on the development of his sociological theories, the chapters are grouped around Lenski's theories of religion, stratification, and evolution. Running like a thread throughout the chapters are the issues of the origins, nature, causes, and consequences of societal differentiation, inequality, and evolutionary change. Whether the focus is within or between religious, economic, racial, gender, or other status groups or societal types over the past 10,000 to 12,000 years, Gerhard Lenski and the distinguished scholars in this book have produced theories and research of great insight.