"It deserves to be read and used as a textbook in a wide variety of introductory courses in sociology, anthropology and sociocultural theory.  It can also serve as a text for American studies courses since it contains in-depth descriptions of basic trends in American society and culture, shedding new light on the core institutions of government, global corporations, health care bureaucracies, food production, manufacturing and many other features of what is often but erroneously called 'post-industrialism.'  Against the main current of the social sciences, here is a book that returns us to the classical view that societies and cultures can best be understood as entities whose parts fit together to form systems." --Marvin Harris Graduate Research Professor Department of Anthropology University of Florida

An analysis of any part of the social system must be firmly rooted in a framework that outlines the whole system and the interrelationships of the various parts.  Building on classical sociological theory, this volume proposes an original and comprehensive systems theory of sociocultural stability and change, which combines fundamental ecological relationships with social structures and culture.  Relationships and concepts developed by Marx, Weber, Malthus, Mills, Harris and Durkheim are explained and synthesized into a coherent perspective, which is used to examine multiple phenomena in hyper industrial societies:

• the structure of power
• bureaucracy
• the irrationality factor
• globalization
• economic rationalization
• current workplace turmoil
• family and community
• agriculture and health care
• higher education and politics
• the rise of a new ideology of technology
• possibilities for the future

Contents: Preface; Introduction; Sociocultural Materialism; Sociocultural Evolution; Structures of Authority; Economic Rationalization; The Decline of Commitment; Factual Regularities; The Widening Gyre; The New Ideology; Possibilities; References; Index.