Sociology timeline

This timeline has been compiled to assist you in three ways:

• It should help you to locate important sociological contributions within a historical context.
• It should identify some of the major works in sociology of which you should be aware.
• It should direct your attention to further reading on particular topics.

Rather than identify the births and deaths of particularly important sociologists, we have chosen instead to highlight works that represent significant contributions to sociological knowledge. The books chosen do not attempt to cover the whole of an individual's opus, but direct your attention to the specific works that we have found useful in our own exploration of sociology.

You will find in the timeline sociologists who do not appear in the main text, as well as those who do. This is because no one text can hope to encompass the vast richness of sociological writing or acknowledge every important advance in our understanding of society. So, the titles suggested are a flavour of what the great sociological writers can offer.

We have also identified important political and economic events in red so that you can begin to make sense of the history of our discipline and locate individuals within their epochs. In green are events specifically related to the discipline and some of its key figures. Inevitably, the events chosen tend to be those that we ourselves have found useful as markers. You should add any other important events to the timeline to make this your own.

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