对于19、20世纪卷帙浩繁的社会理论的梳理，不啻为一项艰苦而艰巨的工作。呈现在读者面前的这本书出色地展现了其著作者广博的知识、精湛的写作技巧和清晰的思路。本书选取了19世纪以来卓越的社会理论家，以他们对社会发展的突破性的思想贡献，在作者巧妙的构思下，连成一条新的意识变迁的长河。

兰德尔·柯林斯，现为美国宾夕法尼亚大学社会学教授，研究领域为社会学理论、宏观社会学和社会冲突等。他曾出版有《暴力：一种微观社会学理论》（2008）、《互动仪式链》（2004）、《新经济社会学》（2002合著）。

PREFACE
INTRODUCTION SOCIETY AND ILLUSION
Chapter 1 The Prophets of Paris: Saint-Simon and Comte
Chapter 2 The Last Gentleman: Alexis de Tocqueville
Chapter 3 Nietzsche's Madness
Chapter 4 Do-Gooders, Evolutionists, and Racists
Chapter 5 Dreyfus's Empire: Emile Durkheim
Chapter 6 Max Weber: The Disenchantment of the World
Chapter 7 Sigmund Freud: Conquistador of the Irrational
Chapter 8 The Discovery of the Invisible World: Simmel, Cooley, and Mead
Chapter 9 .The Discovery of the Ordinary World: Thomas, Park, and the Chicago School
Chapter 10 The Emergence of African-American Sociology: Du Bois, Frazier, Drake, and Cayton
Chapter 11 The Construction of the Social System: Pareto and Parsons
Chapter 12 Hitler's Shadow: Michels, Mannheim, and Mills
Chapter 13 Erving Goffman and the Theater of Social Encounters
Chapter 14 Cultural Capital, Revolution, and the World-System: The Theories of Pierre Bourdieu, Theda Skocpol, and Immanuel WaUerstein
Chapter 15 From the Code of the Street to the Social Structure of Right and Wrong: The Sociology of Elijah Anderson and Donald Black