Don Martindale employs a defensible set of criteria for classifying theories, tracing their intellectual social roots to map sociological theory. Martindale identifies four major, active theoretical divisions into which the theories can be aligned. The result is a succinct and comprehensive book that enables readers to identify not only the major types of sociological theory but also the theorists themselves, and the traditions from which their theories developed. Sociological Theory is presented against the background of the humanistic and scientific traditions of the West and as being either elementaristic or holistic in type. This solid volume illuminates the valuable theoretical principles of a distinctive group of leading theorists.