FEATURED EBOOK

The classic work that redefined the sociology of knowledge and has inspired a generation of philosophers and thinkers

In this seminal book, Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann examine how knowledge forms and how it is preserved and altered within a society. Unlike earlier theorists and philosophers, Berger and Luckmann go beyond intellectual history and focus on commonsense, everyday knowledge—the proverbs, morals, values, and beliefs shared among ordinary people.

When first published in 1966, this systematic, theoretical treatise introduced the term social construction,effectively creating a new thought and transforming Western philosophy.

ABOUT Peter Berger

  • BIOGRAPHY

    Award-winning scholar and author Dr. Peter L. Berger (b. 1929) has been hailed as one of the most important modern American sociologists. Berger graduated from Wagner College in New York in 1949 before receiving his master’s degree and doctorate from The New School in New York in 1950 and 1954, respectively. Today, Berger is a professor emeritus of religion, sociology, and theology at the University of Boston and director of the Institute for the Study of Economic Culture, which studies relationships between economic development and sociocultural change. Berger’s works include Invitation to Sociology (1963), The Social Construction of Reality (1966) with Thomas Luckmann, The Sacred Canopy (1967), and A Rumor of Angels (1969).

  • Academic background

    • —Doctor honoris causa, Loyola University, Wagner College, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Geneva, the University of Munich
    • —M.A., Ph.D., New School for Social Research
    • —Director, Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs, Boston University
    • —Professor Emeritus of Religion, Sociology and Theology, Boston University

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    AWARDS

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