Book excerpt: This book, by a leading sociologist, examines the sociology of Durkheim, Marx, and some of their more distinguished followers. Lockwood shows that, underlying obvious and well-known differences, there are remarkably similar sets of assumptions about the structure of social action and specifically about how social order is created, maintained, and, under certain conditions, disrupted. These assumptions raise problems that have never been adequately addressed by either Durkheimians or Marxists. Lockwood's important study is a contribution toward identifying where and why new conceptual thinking is required.