Concepts of Europe in Classical Social Theory

Examining the concepts of Europe among German social theorists of the early twentieth century, "Concepts of Europe in Classical Social Theory" looks at the leading ways in which Europe is imagined by these writers as a geo-historical entity.

The book reveals that early twentieth-century German social theory provides a rich seam of resources for current thinking about Europe's multitude of indeterminate national, ethnic and religious identities, and about Europe's place in world history and Europe's relationship to other contemporary centres of global power such as North America, Asia and 'Eurasia'.

Austin Harrington argues that German social theorists anticipate many of the concerns of recent postcolonial critics about eurocentrism in western social science, and in some respects surpass these critics in the depth and the systemacity with which they compare different world civilizations and analyze Europe's relative position amongst these.