Abstract

The Companion is a collection of articles covering noted German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies' full range of thinking. Topics include Tönnies and the development of sociology, Tönnies on community, on globalization, on gender and the family, and on crime and law. They also include Tönnies’ views on politics, on public opinion as well as on Tönnies as Hobbes scholar and his relation to Georg Simmel. Each of the essays is written in a clear manner and will be understandable to the non-specialist. Each essay is comprehensive and will be useful to the specialist. The Companion is a welcome and significant contribution to our understanding of this noted sociologist and political thinker.  

The volume is a comprehensive collection of essays on various aspects of Ferdinand Tönnies’s thought. Each of the essays has been written by a distinguished expert on Tönnies. The contributors include Niall Bond, Kenneth C. Bessant, David Inglis, Stefan Bertschi, Efraim Podoksik, William Stafford, Slavko Splichal and Mathieu Deflem. [NP] This companion is a major contribution to our understanding of one of Germany’s greatest social theorists and who was a major founder of sociology, a significant cultural critic, and an important political thinker. The essays contained in this volume are written in a clear style in order to be easily understood by non-specialists yet they are comprehensive enough to appeal to the specialist. The international collection of authors represents a range of disciplines, thus providing a fuller appreciation for the writings of Ferdinand Tönnies.

Christopher Adair-Toteff is a Fellow at the Center for Social and Political Thought, University of South Florida, Tampa, and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK.