Sociology - Marx, Durkheim and Weber

            In my final paper for this course, I will be writing about some of the most important leaders of the sociology field. These three theorist are Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim. They were often referred to as "The Power Trio of Sociology". They gave a lot to the area of sociology and are pretty much the face of this particular field. All three sociologists had their similarities and differences. Karl Marx "believed that capitalism resulted in the alienation of workers from their own labor and from one another, preventing them from achieving self-realization (species being)." According to Marx, "social life is fundamentally about conflict over food, land, money, and other material goods. Marx believed that the ideal government would be a communist state where resources are equally shared." Max Weber "imagined that an increasing rationalization of society would lead to man being trapped in an iron cage of rationality and bureaucracy." Finally, Durkheim "believed that industrialization would lead to decreasing social solidarity." These three all envisioned different impacts the Industrial Revolution would have on people in society. Karl Marx had Alienation, Max Weber had Rationalization, and Durkheim had Solidarity. .
             Three of the most important sociological theorist in history are Karl Marx, Max Weber and Emile Durkheim. Karl Marx was a "German philosopher and revolutionary socialist, he published "The Communist Manifesto" and "Das Kapital" (Marx), anticapitalist works that form the basis of Marxism." Those books were heavily favored in his time period. Marx was considered the "Father of Conflict theory". Conflict theory suggests that human behavior in society results from conflicts between competing groups. He also created a classical grand theory that attempts to explain the historical development of capitalism and Marx compared society at the macro level, meaning he looked at the bigger picture.