Colonialism and Modern Social Theory (eBook)

Gurminder K. Bhambra is Professor of Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies at the University of Sussex. John Holmwood is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Nottingham.

Introduction: Colonialism, Historiography, and Modern Social Theory

1. Hobbes to Hegel: Europe and its Others

2. Tocqueville: From the United States to Algeria

3. Marx: Colonialism, Capitalism, and Class

4. Weber: Religion, Nation, and Empire

5. Durkheim: Modernity and Community

6. Du Bois: Addressing the Colour Line

Conclusion: The Fictions of Modern Social Theory

"Colonialism and Modern Social Theory is essential reading for all sociologists, regardless of the stage they are in their careers. [...] Altogether, this book bears the hallmarks of a powerful decolonization project--it disrupts, destabilizes, and deconstructs the canonized European social theory."
--Zophia Edwards, Journal of Classical Sociology

"Gurminder K. Bhambra and John Holmwood offer a stimulating and resourceful guide [...], setting forth a provocative approach in disrupting and radically reinterpreting dominant sociological understandings of modern world society."
--Thesis Eleven

"For Bhambra and Holmwood, colonialism is more than just another subject to be entrusted to a special subset of sociology to study. Rather, it forms the central context in which the discipline came about, which always engages in a bit of self-enlightenment when it deals with it. This is an elegant argument."
--Soziopolis

"This is a remarkably powerful book that supplies an eloquent, well-reasoned, and thorough account of how colonialism and empire are absent from sociology's current jurisdiction. Written by two outstanding sociologists, it is a nuanced and pertinent critique of the classical canon in modern social theory and an invitation to decolonize it."
--Sari Hanafi, American University of Beirut and President of the International Sociological Association

"Bhambra and Holmwood analyse incisively how the elided colonial context of modern social theory has shaped and limited its purview, and that of western sociology. They provide a timely, provocative optic for engaging the unanticipated ethnoracial nationalist backlash to multicultural democracy."
--Robert J. Antonio, University of Kansas