Abstract: In a critique of Peter L. Berger's Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective (1963), Kevin J. Christiano remarks that while Berger's book remains one of the most widely adopted, anthologized, and cited of the many introductory books in the field, it has received surprisingly little critical attention since its publication 25 years ago. I believe, however, that any writer whose mistakes have taken this long to identify is probably quite a figure in intellectual history (Roazen 1973) and Kevin Cristiano's reconsideration of the place of Invitation to Sociology as a classic work in teaching undergraduate sociology does little to diminish, and, ironically, only serves to draw attention to, the distinctive and enduring value of Berger's book. In fact, I read Cristiano's paper fully intending to find confirmation for some of my own, now seemingly petty criticisms of Berger's classic. To my surprise, after rereading the book, and reading Christiano's paper, and reflecting on my own experience in the classroom with Invitation to Sociology, I have a renewed commitment to using it as a continuing standard of excellence for introducing sociology to newcomers to the field. This paper addresses three concerns in its response to Christiano's critique of Berger's book: 1) Christiano's contribution of a useful set of evaluative criteria for identifying just what features make Invitation to Sociology a classic; moreover, the marginal nature of Christiano's comments and their paradoxical role in illuminating the distinctive attributes of Berger's introduction to sociology; 2) the implications of Christiano's analysis for some useful ways for emphasizing what is classic when using Berger's book as an introduction to sociology; and 3) speculation for building on Berger's classic insights. The first way in which Christiano's criticism of Berger's Invitation to Sociology actually helps to identify and underscore a classic attribute of the work is through his evaluation of the book's description of sociology to new-
Publication Year: 1990
Publication Date: 1990-10-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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