The crisis-riddled world needs a renewed sociology perhaps even more than it requires economic or political advice. Charles Lemert sees sociology as first and foremost a special type of practical, moral wisdom. Sociology is the way in which individuals try to understand the inner secrets of social life against the embracing structures of the modern world. All professional sociologists build, or ought to build, from this fundamental attempt to take the measure of one's self in a structured world.

Lemert's appreciative insights span the historical development of sociology from the days of Durkheim and Weber, through those of Merton and Parsons, to today's sociology influenced by Dorothy Smith, Bourdieu, Giddens, and many more. With uncommon ease the author speaks of writers like these in relation to Gloria Anzaldua, Cornel West, and others who represent the current wave of practical sociologies.

Sociology After the Crisis invites sociologists, social scientists, and all those concerned with today's world to take up once again their responsibilities as public intellectuals and to begin by recognizing that sociology is most powerful when rooted in the practical work of daily life.