Re: Social Theory

George and others,

I am also in the market for social theory text.  Although I have
yet to discover the perfect text, there are a few that look promising.
I guess the problem I'm having is with texts that have excerpts
from the original readers.  These tend to be very skimpy and include
only a few pages from each thinker.  You may also want to consider
creating a reader yourself and include some world-systems writers
that tend to be omitted from many of these texts.  

I am leaning towards secondary texts because the concepts and ideas
are more readily accessible to the student than short, scattered, and
skimpy "primary" materials.  A semester is a short period to cover this
large topic and having a well organized text that covers the major concepts
works well.

The secondary texts I am considering include the following:

Steven Siedman "Contested Knowledge" and Randall Collins "Discovery of
Society."  Both of these texts are strong on the social context of the
theorists and include a manageable number of selections.  

The reader edited by Peter Kivisto "Illuminating Social Life: Classical and
Contemporary Theory Revisited" looks like it may be useful.  The intro chapter
claims that it is student friendly in which it allows them to think about
theory
at work, at home, in bed, in the kitchen . . .  It may be a good supplement.
However, beware many of these essays are written by mainstream sociologists
who have an obsession in demonstrating the usefulness of "interactional
level" theories or the "micro-macro" link. . .  These tend to put students to
sleep, rightfully so.

If any one has other texts that they find useful please let me know.

Best,
Khaldoun Samman