10 Most Influential Books by the ISA

This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

ISA (International Sociological Association), 10 Books

One of the major aims of the ISA World Congress of Sociology held in Montreal 1998, was to make a critical assessment of sociological heritage of the twentieth century. In this framework the ISA Congress Programme Committee carried on in 1997 an opinion survey in order to identify ten most influential books for sociologists. ISA members were asked to list five books published in the twentieth century which were most influential in their work as sociologists. 16% of ISA members (455 out of 2785) participated in the survey

This list was originally published in 1997 and was added to this site about 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
870 Economy and Society Max Weber 1922 German German
7964 The Sociological Imagination C. Wright Mills 1959 American English
7194 Social Theory And Social Structure Robert K. Merton 1949 American English
911 The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Max Weber 1905 German German
8721 The Social Construction Of Reality Peter Berger, Thomas Luckmann 1966 German English
10044 Distinction Pierre Bourdieu 1979 French French
1581 The Civilizing Process Norbert Elias 1939 German German
2796 The Theory Of Communicative Action Jürgen Habermas 1981 German German
7747 The Structure Of Social Action Talcott Parsons 1937 American English
3516 The Presentation Of Self In Everyday Life Erving Goffman 1959 American English