The sociological imagination:Legacy of an intellectual craftsman

Abstract

In 1953 C. Wright Mills wrote an introduction to the Mentor Edition of The Theory of the Leisure Class. In it he offered some important suggestions of his overall perspective. After reviewing the books that Veblen had written, Mills wrote: "There is no better set of books written by a single individual about American society" (1953, p. xi). One may regard this not only as high praise, coming from the man many consider to be the American sociologist of the twen tieth century, but also as marking his professional identity. Many of Mills's com ments on Veblen in the Mentor introduction shed considerable light on Mills's own value perspective: