Contemporary Social Theory and Its Classical Roots: The Basics is ideal for those looking for a brief, yet accessible text on sociological theory. An affordable alternative to a standard text, this volume is concise, comprehensive, informative, engaging, includes a range of pedagogical features, and it appeals to a wide range of students. The 4th edition has added new sections on W.E.B. Du Bois, Queer theory, and key concepts and applications boxes on a variety of contemporary social theories. New to the fourth edition: •Concise yet comprehensive discussions of both classical and contemporary sociological schools of theory. •Biographical/autobiographical vignettes of key sociological thinkers. •NEW! Key concepts boxes presenting important theories. New edition includes updates boxes on critical theories of race, racism and orientalism. •NEW! Contemporary applications boxes, including new descriptions of the Occupy Movement, neo-Marxian spatial analysis, antidepressants, marriage statistics, and “the bathroom problem.” CONTENTS • Introduction to Sociological Theory • Classical Theories I • Classical Theories II • Contemporary Grand Theories I • Contemporary Grand Theories II • Contemporary Theories of Everyday Life • Contemporary Integrative Theories • Contemporary Feminist Theories by Patricia Madoo Lengermann and Gillian Niebrugge • Postmodern Grand Theories • Globalization Theory ABOUT THE AUTHOR / EDITOR George Ritzer is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, where he has been a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher and won a Teaching Excellence award by the American Sociological Association, and in 2004, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by LaTrobe University, Melborune, Australia. He held the UNESCO Chair in Social Theory at the Russian Academy of Sciences, a Fulbright-Hay Chair at York University in Canada, and a Fulbright-Hays award to the Netherlands. He has been Scholar-in-Residence at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study and the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences. Dr. Ritzer’s main theoretical interests lie in metatheory as well as applied social theory. He is perhaps best known for the McDonaldization of Society (translated into more than a dozen languages). He edited the Encyclopedia of Social Theory (2005), and is the founding editor of the Journal of Consumer Culture. Jeffrey Stepnisky is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where he teaches classical and contemporary social theory. He has published in the area of social theory, especially as it relates to questions of subjectivity. This includes a series of papers on the topic of antidepressant medications and contemporary selfhood. He has co-edited the Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Major Social Theorists, with George Ritzer, and served as the managing editor for The Encyclopedia of Social Theory and the Journal of Consumer Culture.