ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to provide an overview of key trends in European social thought during the twentieth century and, in a very tentative way, to look ahead to developments in the twenty-first. For much of the twentieth century, social theory in Europe was informed by classical thought (specifically Marx, Weber, Durkheim and Simmel), not simply through their substantive concerns, but also for the way they engaged with contemporary issues through theoretically informed empirical research. Indeed, important texts and translations by and about these figures are still being produced today, while the legacy of their work continues to be debated. We have not left our classical legacy behind, but are still actively and imaginatively engaged with it.
