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Overview
In Social Evolutionism Stephen Sanderson provide a lucid account of a body of theory that has profoundly affected both intellectual and popular assumptions about human nature, society, and behavior. He describes the prominent and controversial role that evolutionary ideas have played in the development of social theory. He demonstrates the diversity of evolutionary ideas by comparing their notions of causation, their assumptions about human progress, and the adequacy of their modes of explanation and interpretation of evidence. Although he is highly critical of some aspects of evolutionary thinking and some modes of evolutionism, Professor Sanderson shows that an evolutionary interpretation of world history contributes vital insights about the character of human social life.
Editorials
From the Publisher
"Sanderson writes with admirable clarity, and with a relaxed, easy-going (yet unpatronizing) style. There is none of the jargon and intellectual pomposity that afflict so much writing in sociological and anthropological theory. Indeed, the book would be readily comprehensive to a virtual beginner with little or no previous knowledge of the field." The Times Higher Education Supplement
"Everything graduate students want to prepare for their generals: a succinct, clear presentation of over a century of evolutionary thinking in the social sciences, with incisive criticisms. The main strands of social evolutionism are skillfully disentangled are related to biological evolutionism. I can think of no better text to use in any course on sociological theory." Pierre van den Berghe
"One of the most important books i have read in recent years. It cuts through the nihilism and antiscientism of the past decade with a splandidly shiny sciences... His expositions of the works of leading figures make for one brilliant tour de force after another." Marvin Harris
"The text is superb. It is easily the outstanding treatment of the subject in print. It deserves wide currency and should becmoe the standard textbook for any sociology or anthropology course on sociocultural evolution." Robert L Carneiro