Review: Marion Blute on Cultural and Social Selection

W. G. Runciman. The Theory of Cultural and Social Selection. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009, 266 pp. $US 27.99 paper (978-0-521-13614-3), $US 75.00 hardcover (978-0-521-19951-3)

W. G. Runciman (Walter Garrison Runciman, 3rd Viscount Runciman of Doxford, Commander of the Order of the British Empire and Fellow of the British Academy) is an historical and comparative sociologist and social theorist. Along with Anthony Giddens and Margaret Archer, he is arguably one of the three most distinguished British social theorists of his time. He has a number of honourary degrees including from Oxford, he served as President of the British Academy from 2001-2004, and he is a Foreign Honourary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. As both an abbreviation and an extension of his three volume A Treatise on Social Theory (particularly of the second volume), The Theory of Cultural and Social Selection is a welcome addition to Runciman's corpus.  … Read more