The Evolution of Society: Selections from Herbert Spencer's Principles of Sociology.

Abstract

The recent perceptible liaisons between comparative, functionalist, and evolutionist approaches to social life, suggest that Spencer (who excluded none of these approaches) might be usefully reconsidered. Robert L. Carneiro, who has judiciously edited these selections from Spencer's major sociological work and contributed a balanced fifty-page introduction, succeeds admirably in conveying a picture of Spencer the bold social scientist, from whom the contemporary timid breed might gain in spirit, if not in substance.