The Norton History of the Human Sciences

Roger Smith's book charts the origins, growth, and consolidation of sociology, linguistics, economics, anthropology, and especially psychology - those areas of study that today have come to be known as the human sciences - and assesses their changing contributions to our understanding of human behavior from the Renaissance to the present day. The book explores the influence of the architects of modern Western ideas about human nature: thinkers as diverse as Locke, Descartes, Montesquieu, Marx, Darwin, and Freud. It also examines the emergence of questions central to understanding the West's reaction to the onset of modernity: the effects of colonialism on Western thought; the construction of the nationstate; the interaction of the new sciences of the person and jurisprudence; the historical origins of ideas about sex and gender; the emergence of an introspective language about the self; and humanity's response to new technologies.