One of the major trends in sociology since WWII has been the restriction of sociologists' interest to the present age, in contrast to the more broadly historically based work of such earlier figures as Karl Marx & Max Weber. The two major schools, Parsonianism & neo-Marxism, reflect political divisions among sociologists, few of whom recognize sufficiently the need to emancipate their science from such divisions. In a longer-term perspective, a crucial need exists to identify universal features of human societies that have persisted through the radical change & development such societies have undergone. A concept of basic social functions is outlined, & the work of Karl Marx is critiqued as having recognized only one of these functions, the economic, as a power base. The history of civilization is reviewed from a perspective that avoids this monism. 3 References. W. H. Stoddard 

source: Sociological Abstracts