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One of the most significant and frequently noted features in recent years of the areas generally referred to as coming under the heading of the sociology of crime, deviance and social control has been the sometimes uneasy, even hostile, coexistence of several major alternative theoretical approaches to the topic, which are accompanied by a corresponding range of methodologies.

1974, pp. 164, $A.9.75. Fifteen years ago E. H. Carr speculated that sociology was breaking from the cage of a traditional theory of knowledge. Peter Hamilton's book takes a step back by undermining Carr's optimism. The author aversion to the philosophical and political levels of analysis undermines, by being overly simplistic. the credibility of his argument.In spite of its shortcomings, the book is informative.After an interesting opening chapter on the Enlightenment, three chapters are devoted to Marx and the Marxists. These are followed by chapters on Scheler. Weber, Durkheim, Mannheim, and a brief consideration of the phenomenological approaches.The major weakness of the book is that the author fails satisfactorily to demonstrate 'the determinate relationship between knowledge and social structure'. The three autonomous 'pre-paradigms' that he proposes, based upon the thought of Marx, Durkheim and Weber, provide descriptive rather than analytical approaches to the sociology of knowledge.Furthermore, in his attempt to show how a sociology of knowledge is possible, Hamilton neglects his own ontological assumptions qiia theorist, and thus fails to draw out the epistemological consequences of a more thoroughgoing sociology of knowledge. Ultimately, this book is no more than an idiosyncratic prologue to the systematisation and refinement of an incipient sociology of ~knowledge. wood-Cliffs, Prentice-Hall, 1975, pp. 216. No price available. This volume is yet another example of an American academic's introductory University course being reproduced in book form, and it contains the usual strengths and weaknesses of publications of this kind. On the credit side.the authors offer a well-written, concise and comprehensive survey of all the major ideas and issues currently confronting sociologists of deviance, with the added asset of an extensive and up-to-date reference list. At the same time, the volume suffers from related defects: an eclectic and somewhat superficial coverage of a complex subject, a lack of any sustained or original arguments, and a heavy reliance on its chief author's (and other writers') previous work. Consisting mainly of brief summaries of the theories and research findings relating to the various aspects of the study of deviance -what is it, how to view it, what causes it, what happens to deviants, etc.-the book's most imaginative section is the final one which tackles the ethical issues associated with deviance research, a question which has attracted a fair amount of recent interest and emotion.Though generally unremarkable in any particular respect, this volume may still prove useful simply as an introductory text. in view of the rapidly increasing number of courses being offered at the tertiary level in Australasia in the general areas of deviance, crime and social control. Anne HillerTowards a Critical Sociology (an essay on common-sense and emancipation).In both these books, Bauman has expanded on a theme which kept surfacing in his earlier Culture as Praxis, on the capacity of a body ...