"With this astute and illuminating collection, Turner demonstrates for contemporary readers why Talcott Parsons is regarded as the dominant sociological theorist of the mid-twentieth century, and one of the master narrators of modernity. Ranging from economics and global power to considerations of youth, sickness, and death, these empirically-oriented selections reveal the vast scope of Parson’s thought." – Jeffrey Alexander, University of California at Los Angeles

"Parsons once described himself as an ‘incurable theorist’. This excellent collection of essays reveals a practical sociologist possessing great insight into the modern condition. Professor Turner has done a real service in reminding us of the substantive issues to which Parsons’s theoretical efforts were ultimately directed, issues which are as central to the discipline now as when Parsons was writing." – John Holmwood, University of Edinburgh