William H. Starbuck (NYU): The Constant Causes of Never-Ending Faddishness in the Behavioral and Social Sciences. Fred Eidlin (Tartu): Reconciling the General and the Unique: Area Studies, Case Studies, and History versus Generalizing Social Science. Niccolo Leo Caldararo (SFSU): The Psychic Unity of Mankind: The Origins of Anthropology, the Anti-Slavery Movement and Cultural Relativism. Alberto Vanolo (Turin): The Border between Core and Periphery: Geographical Representations of the World System. The introduction to Durkheim and the Birth of Economic Sociology by Philippe Steiner. Rejecting Double Blind: Economics association and political science journal abandon what has been dominant form of peer review in social sciences. The prophet redeemed: Tom Nairn reviews Ernest Gellner: An Intellectual Biography by John A. Hall. Alan Wolfe reviews Lawrence Scaff's Max Weber in America (and more). An interview with Peter Baehr, author of Hannah Arendt, Totalitarianism, and the Social Sciences. Gabrielle Wood on the growing population of spiritual aspirants in the 21st century: Could social scientists empower them with information needed to make choices in the "spiritual marketplace"? From Contexts, an article on "embedded sociologists". How to be a public intellectual: An interview with Herbert Gans on making academic research — sociology in particular — relevant. Harvey Mansfield on sociology and other "Meathead" majors. A look at how the social sciences face an uphill battle proving their worth to Congress.
