Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication Page -- Contents -- About the Author -- Acknowledgements -- Chapter 1 Society as the Walls of Our Imprisonment -- On the Concept of Natural Kinds in Science -- The Road to Sociology -- Conclusion: On Perspective -- Chapter 2 Science and Sociology -- Science and Morals -- The Ethos of Science -- Chapter 3 Founders and Founding Ideas1 -- Origins -- Intervention on the Study of Culture -- Ibn Khaldun Again -- The Founding Ideas of the Sociological Imagination -- Themes -- The Role of Women in the Founding Moments of the Sociological Imagination -- Modern Era in Sociology and Anthropology -- Chapter 4 Key Literary Moments in My Sociological Biography -- Flashback -- Intervention: A Note on Numbers and Economics -- An Era of Crisis -- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) -- Conclusion -- Chapter 5 Tolstoy's Perspective on Human Being and Conduct -- Capturing the Life of a People -- Interlude: Physics Intervenes -- Tolstoy Again -- Free Will -- Conclusion -- Epilogue: On Power -- Chapter 6 Humans Among the Social Species1 -- The Decline of Face-to-Face as an Existential Threat -- Conclusion -- Caveat -- Epilogue: The Bonobos Natural Experiment -- Chapter 7 Gumplowicz and the Myth of the Individual -- Morals -- Basic Principles of Human Being and Conduct -- Rights -- Rights and the State -- Rights and Morals -- Conclusion -- Coda -- Chapter 8 The Social Origins of God1 -- How Can We Know A God Outside of Space and Time? -- A Case Study in Christian Philosophy -- I Discover God -- Moments of Awakening -- The Career of the Mythic Hero -- Collective Effervescence -- The Awakening Continues -- Conclusion: Religion, God, and the Sociological Imagination -- Chapter 9 The Social Brain -- Connectomes -- Genius, and Social Networks: Einstein and John Coltrane -- The Woman in Einstein's Social Brain.

The Social Brain -- The Sociology of Improvisation: John Coltrane -- The Work Itself -- Not Anything Goes -- Networks of Jazz -- The Jazz Machine -- Conclusion: Creativity and the Anarchist Brain -- Chapter 10 Institutional Walls of Imprisonment -- The Concept of Total Institution -- A Methodological Intervention: The Ideal Type -- Institutions Once More -- Society and Survival -- Chapter 11 Social Class, Sex, and Gender: Case Studies in Walls of Imprisonment -- Social Class -- Ragged Dick -- Sex and Gender -- Are Escape Tunnels Illusions? -- Conclusion -- Epilogue on Non-Binary Concepts -- Definitions in Common Use -- Transgender and Transsexual -- Some Terms to Avoid -- Chapter 12 Race and Racism: : A Case Study in Walls of Imprisonment -- Systemic Racism/Institutional Racism -- The Credential Society: Education and Social Stratification -- The Souls of Black Folk -- Intersectionality -- Racial Capitalism -- Critical Race Theory -- Culture Wars -- DEI and Affirmative Action -- Epilogue: Terms of Reference -- Chapter 13 Escape Tunnels in the Walls of Our Imprisonment -- The Story of a Wall of Imprisonment -- The Great Wall of China -- The Lesson of Concrete Walls -- Escape Tunnels in the Walls of Our Imprisonment -- Chapter 14 The Ultimate Wall: : The Sociology of Death and Dying: IT'S a Mystery -- Sex and Death: Where Walls of Imprisonment Meet -- Growing Old and Facing Death -- What is Life? -- The Pleasure of Death -- Enter Victor Frankl and Bruno Bettelheim -- The Medicalization of Dying -- When you and Others Die -- Tolstoy Redux -- Enter Stage Right, David Brooks, 2025 -- Exit Stage Left, Sal Restivo, 2025 -- The Meaning of Life -- Ernest Becker (1924-1974) -- References -- Part 1 -- Part II -- Bibliography -- Index -- EULA.