Post Modernism is Not What You Think: (Twentieth-century Social Theory S.)

Highly readable and elegantly composed, Postmodernism Is Not What You Think gently demolishes the most malicious misconceptions of the subject by explaining why the postmodern is so emotionally and politically disturbing. Lemert shows that the postmodern is less a theory than a condition of social life brought about by the trouble modernity has landed itself in.Globalization, the media and popular culture, identity politics, the science wars, politics and cultural studies, structuralism and poststructuralism, and the new sociologies are put in lucid perspective as signs of the new social formations dawning at the end of the modern age.

Table of Contents:
Preface. Disturbance. 1. Beasts, Frogs, Freaks and Other Postmodern Things. 2. Postmodernism Is Not What You Think. 3. An Impossible Glossary. Beginnings. 4. The Political Reality of the Linguistic Turn. 5. Letters From Brazil: Structuralism's Zero Signifier. 6. The Uses of French Structuralisms in Sociology. Prospects. 7. Identities After the Imperium. 8. Representations of the Sociologist: Getting Over Science. 9. The New Sociologies in the Social Unconscious. Endnotes (with page cross reference/running head). Index.

About the Author :
Charles Lemert is Professor of Sociology at Wesleyan University. He writes extensively in the areas of social theory, both classic and contemporary, cultural studies, and French social thought. Professor Lemert is series editor for the Twentieth-Century Social Theory series published by Blackwell and is co-editor of The Goffman Reader (Blackwell 1997).

Review :
"Charles Lemert is one of the most thoughtful and interesting of sociology's postmodernists. He recurrently finds new angles of vision and is especially helpful for overcoming the pernicious opposition of micro and macro perspectives." --Craig Calhoun, New York University "Charles Lemert is the pre-eminent social theorist in America today. In Postmodernism Is Not What You Think Lemert charts a bold future for sociology; a future that follows the outline sketched by American sociology's last two great theorists, C. Wright Mills and Alvin Gouldner. Writing from a space that only he can occupy, Lemert shows the sociological community how to embrace and learn from this thing called postmodernism. Of course postmodernism is just another name for the fact that the times have changed, and our social theories of the world must learn how to reflect this fact. This Lemert does, and in so doing he moves sociology well beyond Mills' Fourth Epoch, a sociological imagination for the next century." -- Norman K. Denzin, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign "Lemert offers new vistas and therein makes a remarkable and rare contribution. A great book challenges sceptical readers to re-examine their assumptions, ideas and methods, and presents them with profound insights and challenges every few pages. Lemert has written such a book." --P. McGuire, University of Toledo "An excellent read for all those interested in the concept of postmodernity and overall a very stimulating and rewarding read." --John Bartley, BSA Network