CRISIS AND CHANGE: Basic questions of Marxist Sociology, by Peter Knapp and Alan J. Spector. Chicago, Ill: Nelson Hall Publishers, 1991. 421 pages. Reviewed by Martha E. Gimenez, University of Colorado at Boulder.

Teaching Marxist Sociology is always difficult, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The authors of this book are, therefore, to be commended by their effort to make Marx, Marxist thought and their relevance to Sociology accessible to students. Their approach to this task is highly original and useful because it is designed to introduce the reader to Marxist thought through each of the four clusters into which Marx's work can be classified: the study of history, politics, economics and philosophy. The book is organized in four large chapters, each dealing with one of these different aspects of Marx's work. In turn, each chapter has an introduction to the main topic, ten short sections answering ten pertinent related questions, and a summary section. Most of the short sections are followed by suggestions for further reading which add up to a substantial annotated bibliography. Another useful feature of the book is the inclusion of methodological appendixes about statistical methods, the relationship between quantitative methods and dialectics, and the relationship between chaos and dialectics. Students with weak backgrounds in statistics will find Appendix A (about statistical methods) particularly helpful.

Also in each chapter there are several exercises which require readers to accomplish a variety of tasks; e.g., to imagine a given state of affairs, to define a given phenomenon or to find theoretical evidence for it, to go into a given setting (e.g., a factory) and then examine their experiences in light of theories discussed in class, etc.

The formal structure of the text is excellent. The authors write in a clear fashion and, to some extent, the book reads as a set of extremely well organized lecture notes. In the introduction, the authors indicate that the book is not meant just for academics or for advanced students; they have envisioned it as suitable for undergraduates and the general public and this goal is reflected in their writing style. I have compared it to lecture notes in a positive, not derogatory sense; on the contrary, most of the time they seem to be speaking directly to the reader and that increases the accessibility and the appeal of the text. While I think they have succeeded in that respect, in the process they have sacrificed some of the rigor that would have made it more useful as a sociology textbook that could stand on its own. Throughout the text, Marx's theories and major insights about the nature of historical change, the major problems of capitalism, and the main features of social organization are compared with those of Hegel, Durkheim, and Weber. While I have no disagreement with the authors about the nature of the differences between Marx and the other writers, the presentation of the others' views is, as it could not be otherwise, rather sketchy. Readers with a background in sociology, history, and philosophy are likely to benefit more from this text than younger students or other readers without such prior knowledge. Many of the exercises, in fact, presuppose a great deal of prior learning . Consider, for example, the following exercise: "Aristotle thought slavery was natural and good. Write a brief dialogue in which you try to convince him that he is wrong" (p.28). The average undergraduate (and the average academic as well) has never read Aristotle, so the kind of dialogue students could write would simply reflect an effort to state the pros and cons of slavery as conceived by the student, without any serious confrontation with Aristotelian arguments. The latter would require the time and dedication undergraduates seldom have, considering the numerous and conflicting demands on their time they experience in the current educational system. Some of the exercises are relatively simple (e.g,"...go out and identify a class. Itemize some examples of living people you know who might be shaped by their class position. Discuss whether you think they are," p. 35); others are very complex and difficult to answer well (e.g., "What are the causes and effects of the great swings in racism? What is the future of racism in the United States today? What are the main things that will determine its future..." p. 210). The exercises are very interesting and useful as teaching tools; the text, however, does not and cannot provide a great deal students would need to know to do many of them well. Many of them assume the knowledge, capacity for analysis and degree of political awareness younger students seldom have.

While the subtitle of the book is "Basic Questions in Marxist Sociology," those unfamiliar with Marxism and eager to learn about Marxist sociology might find this book somewhat disappointing. While an excellent presentation, in many respects, of the major topics of Marxist thought, the connection to sociology is less clear. Marxism, of course, is a mode of theorizing and learning about the world that rejects the fragmentation of social reality into different pieces, each one the subject of a different social science. Nevertheless, it would have been more helpful for students and other readers to present the specific contributions of Marxism to sociology in a more analytical, systematic and clear fashion. There are, here and there, sections where this has been done (for example, in the discussion of stratification). But the book's main achievement lies in its making Marxist thought accessible while leaving up to the readers, especially the instructors, to identify the sociologically pertinent contributions of Marxism beyond the general differences between it and Hegelian, Weberian, and Durkheimian views of capitalist society. Those who, like myself, share most of the authors' theoretical and methodological interpretation of Marxism are likely to find this text extremely valuable either as a main text or as a supplement to original writings by Marx and others in the Marxist tradition. Those teaching in the areas of political sociology, social change, political economy and social stratification would find this text very useful too as a supplement to sociological texts. Students are likely to enjoy reading this text; while it is true that the understanding of many of its points requires a great deal of prior knowledge, it is written in a style that is likely to encourage students to seek answers. Given the dominance of idealist interpretations of Marxism in the United States, some might disagree with the authors' materialist reading of Marx. This is, nevertheless, an important contribution to the teaching of Marxist Sociology which is likely to be welcome even by those who might not fully share the authors' methodological and philosophical assumptions.