Employing an historical and comparative approach, this text is founded on the work of the classic nineteenth- and early twentieth-century founders of sociology, who began their quest for objective social knowledge by addressing the large questions -- where did their societies come from, what were their characters, and where were they going. In their search for answers, they explored the origins of Western capitalism, analyzed its major economic, political and social institutions, and tried to predict future developments. The Author maintains those classic concerns by providing conceptual tools that help students to make sense of the changes currently sweeping American, European, and Third World societies.
James W. Russell was born in New York and grew up in Oklahoma. Active in the 1960s civil rights and antiwar movements, he was the first editor of New Left Notes, the national newspaper of Students for a Democratic Society. He received a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin and has taught at universities in San Francisco, Texas, Oregon, Mexico City, and Connecticut. Currently he teaches sociology and directs the Latin American Studies Program at Eastern Connecticut State University. From 1990 to 1992 he was a Fulbright Senior Lecturer and Researcher at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico City. In 2001 he was named to a five year term as a Fulbright Senior Specialist. He is the author of six books, including Class and Race Formation in North America (University of Toronto Press) and Double Standard: Social Policy in Europe and the United States (Rowman and Littlefield) and a number of articles in publications such as Monthly Review, The Nation and The Progressive.
