Sociology, or, imaginative reflections from empirically damaged life. What is this book about? Is this book depressing? Max Weber and the classical view of modernity. Sociology as critical theory. Developing an orientation to self and society -- The big picture, or, a brief survey of our dying world. More life, more death. More sun, less fun.

This book is intended as an accessible, current, and uncompromised introduction to what C Wright Mills called the sociological imagination. It explains and demonstrates the value of the sociological imagination vis-[gr]a-vis the demands of today's postmodern society, critically addresses the chief forces working against its development, and invites students to adopt this form of self-consciousness as their own.