In this book an effort has been made to offer students a lively and critical introduction to contemporary sociology. It is written with a range of students in mind. It will also be of interest to anyone curious about the nature of cotemporary sociology in the West. The book critically examines the major contemporary social thinkers from Claude L?vi-Strauss (1908-2009) to Randall Collins (born, 1941). The sociological thinkers covered in this book are Claude L?vi-Strauss, Lewis Alfred Coser, Charles Wright Mills, Harold Garfinkel, Louis Pierre Althusser, Peter Michael Blau, Erving Goffman, Jean-Fran?ois Lyotard, Paul-Michel Foucault, Peter Ludwig Berger, Gustav Dahrendorf, Jean Baudrillard, J?rgen Habermas, Jacques Derrida, Pierre Bourdieu, Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein, Anthony Giddens and Randall Collins. Modern social theory is an essential text for sociology students and will also be welcomed by those readers who are interested in social and political theory, social psychology, organization studies and cultural studies. The book will be useful for students as well as teachers of sociology, anthropology, political science and history.