Charles C. Ragin is Chancellor's Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine.

"Scarcely a word in this forcefully argued book is ill spent."

• Preface and Overview Acknowledgements 1. The Distinctiveness of Comparative social Science 2. Heterogeneity and Causal Complexity 3. Case-Oriented Comparative Methods 4. The Variable-Oriented Approach 5. Combined Versus Synthetic Comparative Strategies 6. A Boolean Approach to Qualitative Comparison: Basic Concepts 7. Extensions of Boolean Methods of Qualitatve Comparison 8. Applications of Boolean Methods of Qualitative Comparison 9. The Dialogue of Ideas and Evidence in Social Research Bibliography Index