George Ritzer is Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland. He has chaired both the Theoretical and the Organizations and Occupations sections of the American Sociological Association, and authored more than 25 books, including Expressing America: A Critique of the Global Credit Card Society (1995), The McDonaldization of Society: An Investigation into the Changing Character of Contemporary Social Life (1995), Classical Sociological Theory (second edition, 1995), and The McDonaldization Thesis: Explorations and Extensions (1998).

• Preface. List of Contributors.Introduction: Narratives, Geistesgeschichtes, and the History of Social Theory (Doug J. Goodman).1. Auguste Comte (Mary Pickering).2. Harriet Martineau (Susan Hoecker-Drysdale).3. Herbert Spencer (Jonathan H. Turner).4. Karl Marx (Robert J. Antonio).5. Max Weber (Stephen Kalberg).6. Émile Durkheim (Robert Alun Jones).7. Georg Simmel (Lawrence Scaff).8. Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Charles Lemert).9. George Herbert Mead (Dimitri N. Shalin).10. W.E.B. DuBois (Charles Lemert).11. Alfred Schutz (Mary Rogers).12. Talcott Parsons (Victor Lidz).Index.

George Ritzer is Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland. He has chaired both the Theoretical and the Organizations and Occupations sections of the American Sociological Association, and authored more than 25 books, including Expressing America: A Critique of the Global Credit Card Society (1995), The McDonaldization of Society: An Investigation into the Changing Character of Contemporary Social Life (1995), Classical Sociological Theory (second edition, 1995), and The McDonaldization Thesis: Explorations and Extensions (1998).

• Preface. List of Contributors.Introduction: Narratives, Geistesgeschichtes, and the History of Social Theory (Doug J. Goodman).1. Auguste Comte (Mary Pickering).2. Harriet Martineau (Susan Hoecker-Drysdale).3. Herbert Spencer (Jonathan H. Turner).4. Karl Marx (Robert J. Antonio).5. Max Weber (Stephen Kalberg).6. Émile Durkheim (Robert Alun Jones).7. Georg Simmel (Lawrence Scaff).8. Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Charles Lemert).9. George Herbert Mead (Dimitri N. Shalin).10. W.E.B. DuBois (Charles Lemert).11. Alfred Schutz (Mary Rogers).12. Talcott Parsons (Victor Lidz).Index.