[This text] covers the key thinkers in Western thought for the past 200 years. [This] text uses real life examples to draw readers in and invite them to consider the ideas that have shaped our understanding of society. [This text]: provides in-depth coverage of 30 individual theorists, The book is divided into three sections covering the classics, the organized perspectives, and contemporary critiques and visions. Importantly, the book gives full treatment to and explicitly allows each of the 30 authors their individual perspectives and voices, allowing critical theorists to be critical and positivist theorists to be scientific; emphasizes the problem of modernity/postmodernity as a thinking framework, roughly organized around the theme of modernity, the book traces theories of race and gender through the three periods, beginning with the positive philosophy of Harriet Martineau and ending with the disenchantment of Jean Baudrillard.-Back cover.