Abstract
In many respects this volume represents Talcott Parsons’s life work, in the sense that he toiled on this manuscript in fits and starts over a long period. The actual manuscript for his last ‘big book’ occupied him from 1973 to 1979, when he died on his last trip to Germany. The work was never completed, and hence we owe a great debt of gratitude to Giuseppe Sciortino for pulling this manuscript together and for transforming it into a more or less coherent work. American Society contains many of his key thoughts on social solidarity, citizenship, individualism, religion and, above all, on the character of American history. Bringing together many of Parsons’s earlier articles on power, education, influence and citizenship, the study shows how he sought to employ the famous AGIL scheme – adaptation, goal-attainment, integration and latency functions – to conceptualize the complex inter-relationships between politics, economics, values and personality in American society.
Original language | English |
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Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Journal of Classical Sociology |
Publication status | Published - 2009 |
Keywords
- Parsons, Talcott, 1902-1979
- book reviews
- citizenship
- history, American
- social solidarity
- sociology