Howard G. Schneiderman is professor of sociology at Lafayette College, in Easton Pennsylvania. He has a longstanding interest in intellectual history, and has written extensively on some of sociology’s leading scholars. He has served in a variety of editorial capacities, including Executive Editor of Society, and editorial consultant to Transaction Publishers. His research interests include charisma, authority, and the intersection of both of these with religion, and he has authored many articles, introductions to classic works, and essays in social theory. This full-length volume, more fully develops many of the ideas initially presented in these smaller works.