"Georg Simmel and Avant-Garde Sociology pioneers a new interpretation of Simmel as a thinker whose critical ideas were shaped by the aesthetic, philosophical, and cultural movements of his era: Naturalism, Nietzscheanism, and feminism, respectively. Here, Simmel emerges as a public intellectual who had an enormous impact on German modernism. He is revealed as the intellectual godfather of major cultural and political crusades, including literary Expressionism and the antiwar movement known as Activism.

Author Ralph M. Leck also examines Simmel's seminal influence on the feminist and homosexual rights movements, as well as his meaningful contribution to Western Marxism. Leck's groundbreaking research shows Simmel for the first time as a key figure in the intellectual history of European counterculture, vividly demonstrating why Simmel is to sociology what Newton is to physics.".

"This is the first study to investigate systematically the breadth of Simmel's body of work and his cultural legacy. Simmel's wide-ranging social theories - dealing with such themes as alienation, money culture, social hierarchy, and social trends - are still relevant to current debates and theories about gender, sociology, culture, and politics. Georg Simmel and Avant-Garde Sociology will appeal to both students and scholars who are concerned with the origins and aesthetics of modernity."--BOOK JACKET.