Reflecting emerging research and ongoing reassessments of social theory, The Wiley- Blackwell Companion to Major Social Theorists offers significant updates and revisions to the original Blackwell Companion published a decade ago.Volume 1 Features updates and revisions to all essays from original volume, plus the addition of 11 new authors Includes six new essays featuring coverage of theorists not included in original volume: Ibn Khaldun, de Tocqueville, Schumpeter, Mannheim, Veblen, and Adorno Supplemented with comprehensive bibliographies on primary and secondary sources, with a brief reader's guide accompanying each essay Addresses continuing relevance of most theories and their importance to contemporary scholarship Volume 2 Features updates and revisions to all essays from original volume, plus the addition of 16 new authors Includes 11 new essays featuring coverage of theorists not included in original volume, including Deleuze, Bauman, Smith, Luhmann, Agamben, and others Supplemented with comprehensive bibliographies on primary and secondary sources, with a brief reader's guide accompanying each essay Essays placed in social and historical context to allow readers to see how theorists have responded to pressing contemporary social and political issues

George Ritzer is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland. His books include The McDonaldization of Society (6th ed., 2011), Enchanting a Disenchanted World (3rd ed. 2010), The Globalization of Nothing (2nd ed., 2007), and Globalization: A Basic Text (2010). 

Jeffrey Stepnisky is a member of the Sociology Department at Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He was Managing Editor for the Encyclopedia of Social Theory (2005) and The Journal of Consumer Culture.