Trousson, Raymond / Vercruysse, Jeroom (dir.), Dictionnaire general de Voltaire. (Champion classiques, references et dictionnaires 18) 1272 p. 2020:10 (Champion, FR) <670-9>
ISBN 978-2-38096-016-7 paper ¥7,064.- (税込) EUR 38.00

ヴァイマル共和国における社会学　第1巻
Moebius, Stephan, Sociology in the Weimar Republic. Volume I. 244 pp. 2025:12 (Palgrave Macmillan, UK) <758-862>
ISBN 978-3-032-03775-6 hard ¥35,570.- (税込) EUR 139.99

This book - a two-volume work -reexamines the development of sociology during the Weimar Republic, characterising it as a period of remarkable theoretical, institutional, and disciplinary vitality. Contrary to conventional assumptions, sociology experienced a dynamic phase of professionalisation and differentiation during this period, establishing itself both as an academic discipline and as a practice of societal self-reflection in a time of economic, political, social, and cultural upheaval. By engaging with the crises of democracy, capitalism, new media, modernity, relativism, intellectual life, and identity, sociology came to play a crucial orienting role within Weimar society. The professional self-examination of modern society that this initiated continues to yield valuable insights into how social and historical processes unfold in modern societies. As such, studying sociology during the Weimar period is not just of interest to historians of science; it remains highly relevant to anyone seeking to understand the dynamics and structures of contemporary modern societies. Volume 1 provides a thorough account of the development of sociology during the Weimar Republic-a period marked by rapid institutional expansion, theoretical innovation, and disciplinary consolidation within sociology. The book traces how sociology established itself as an autonomous academic field, with the formation of new university departments, professional associations, and vibrant centres of research and debate. Key figures and intellectual networks are examined in the context of wider socio-political change. The volume also considers the fate of German sociology under National Socialism and in exile, showing how forced migration not only disrupted developments at home but also facilitated the international dissemination and influence of Weimar-era ideas. Far from being marginal or fragmented, Weimar sociology is presented here as a dynamic and ambitious enterprise-one that played a formative role in shaping the discipline as we know it today.

ヴァイマル共和国における社会学　第2巻
Moebius, Stephan, Sociology in the Weimar Republic. Volume II. 169 pp. 2025:12 (Palgrave Macmillan, UK) <758-863>
ISBN 978-3-032-03779-4 hard ¥35,570.- (税込) EUR 139.99

This book - a two-volume work -reexamines the development of sociology during the Weimar Republic, characterising it as a period of remarkable theoretical, institutional, and disciplinary vitality. Contrary to conventional assumptions, sociology experienced a dynamic phase of professionalisation and differentiation during this period, establishing itself both as an academic discipline and as a practice of societal self-reflection in a time of economic, political, social, and cultural upheaval. By engaging with the crises of democracy, capitalism, new media, modernity, relativism, intellectual life, and identity, sociology came to play a crucial orienting role within Weimar society. The professional self-examination of modern society that this initiated continues to yield valuable insights into how social and historical processes unfold in modern societies. As such, studying sociology during the Weimar period is not just of interest to historians of science; it remains highly relevant to anyone seeking to understand the dynamics and structures of contemporary modern societies. Volume 2 examines how sociology in the Weimar Republic positioned itself in response to the economic, political, social, and intellectual crises of modernity. Set against a backdrop of fragmentation, relativism, and a perceived absence of normative foundations, the book traces key debates over how sociology might provide coherence and direction. One section considers the theoretical approaches developed to challenge historicism and epistemic uncertainty. Another investigates the emergence of a sociology of intellectuals, reflecting on the role of thought leaders in a society marked by polarisation and ideological upheaval. A third section explores sociological analyses of the era's central crises-democracy under strain, capitalism in turmoil, the ambivalence of individualisation, and the longing for community and cultural meaning. Across these responses, the volume reveals sociology's self-understanding as a science of orientation and societal reflection - an ambition that remains as urgent today as it was in the Weimar era.

自由と階級の間－M.ヴェーバーの社会政治
Ghosh, Peter, Between Freedom and Hierarchy: Max Weber's Social Politics. 256 pp. 2026:6 (Oxford U. Pr., UK) <758-537>
ISBN 978-0-19-890715-2 hard ¥11,792.- (税込) GB￡ 40.00

In his later life, Max Weber's work focused on ideas about rule and hierarchy encapsulated in the German word Herrschaft. These ideas are unique in the canon of Western political theory in that they derive almost exclusively from social categories (agency, power, hierarchy), rather than more conventional political ones (constitutions, democracy). This produces a picture of 'political' life which is self-evident to us today, yet it is theoretically novel. Weber was passionately committed to the idea of human agency: that all people contained within them the potential for ordering their lives in ways they found meaningful. But he also accepted the presence of powerful external constraints on agency, created by the exercise of agency itself--the unequal outcomes of free competition--or impersonal forces, such as technology and bureaucracy. So free societies and polities revolve around two opposite poles: freedom and hierarchy. Weber developed these ideas in parallel with what he now began to call his 'sociology'. The foundations of his thought go back to 1904-5, but engagement with political theory made him reflect more carefully on what one could say about social life in general, and how much this differed from conditions specific to politics or any other life-sphere. He evolved an original, 'federal' model of sociology: a small general core set alongside much larger special sociologies on (for example) politics, religion, law, the economy. This is unique amongst the classical sociologists. In this way, the book covers the major novelties of Weber's final decade and presents the first comprehensive historical portrait of Weber's political ideas. Weber has an immense variety of modern readers and users, but the perspective of the historian with no other commitment than to what he himself thought, is the nearest that we can come to a detached or neutral view of him.