How did the study of sociology develop? History and Theory focuses on the development of sociological theorists’ ideas about society and social research over time. Ideas of major classical theorists such as Auguste Comte, Karl Marx, and Max Weber are explored, as well as a range of schools of thought in sociology, including structural functionalism, conflict theory, symbolic interactionism, phenomenology, ethnomethodology, critical theory, and postmodernism and emancipatory theories. This brand-new, full-colour volume concludes with a discussion of the relationship between sociological theory and public policy.