Martin Bulmer Livres

This book traces the history of British sociology and empirical social research over the last hundred years. Its coverage includes the census of population, the classic poverty surveys of Booth and Rowntree, the slow growth of social science between the wars, mass-observation, the rise of the Government Social Survey, the establishment of academic sociology after 1945 outside Oxford and Cambridge, and independent initiatives such as the foundation of the Institute of Community Studies. A concluding section considers the uses made of British sociology, the place of the citizen as the subject of research, social surveys for policy-making, and the success of social science in predicting the future. These essays reflect the interests of the distinguished British sociologist, the late Philip Abrams. In addition to him the contributors include a number of distinguished sociologists such as A. H. Halsey, Hannan C. Selvin, Edward Shils, Peter Townsend and Peter Willmott, as well as several well-known younger scholars.

W. E. B. DuBois wrote in 1903 that 'the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the colour line - the relation of the darker to the lighter races in Asia and Africa, in America and in the islands of the sea'. As the century draws to its close, this remains true; if anything the salience of race and racism in all its manifestations has grown in the recent past. The last few years have witnessed a growth in academic interest in racism, and in related issues such as nationalism and ethnicity, as well as an increasing general awareness of various kinds of racial conflict and violence in a range of countries and regions across the globe. This Reader provides a critical overview of the historical development and contemporary forms of racist ideas and institutions. It brings together material from different theoretical perspectives in an attempt to make sense of the way in which racism has exerted such a powerful influence on the history of humanity.