G. Duncan Mitchell received his degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science and has taught at the Universities of Liverpool, Birmingham, and Oxford as well as at several universities in the United States and Canada. He was professor of sociology at the University of Exeter and the author of several books including Sociology: The Study of Social Systems, co-author of Neighborhood and Community, and editor of A Dictionary of Sociology.

Tracing the development of scientifi c sociology from Comte to the present, A Hundred Years of Sociology is a concise, narrative history of the major fi gures, ideas, and schools that lie behind the work of contemporary sociologists. Covering both theoretical and empirical contributions, the book describes the convergence of two major streams of sociological thought: a speculative and philosophical tradition and a reformist, fact-fi nding tradition. Throughout the volume, the author is as much concerned with the content of ideas as with their labels and chronology. The important developments in both American and European sociology are considered in full, and special attention is given to the emergence of social anthropology and social psychology and to the profound infl uence of World War II on current work in the field.