Revisiting the central theories of Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Simmel, Mead, Parsons, Goffman, Garfinkel, and Luhmann, this text introduces readers to a select group of thinkers who have made significant, distinctive, and controversial contributions to the develpment of modern social theory. Great Minds was originally published in Italian. This first-ever English-language edition includes a new final chapter on the work of Luhmann.