Written by Shamus Khan (Princeton University), Patrick Sharkey (Princeton University), and Gwen Sharp (Nevada State College) as part of A Sociology Experiment. To read this chapter, add it to your cart, complete the checkout process, return to this page, and select “Read Now” to open the Bookshelf reader.

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to: define sociology as a discipline; discuss the concept of the sociological imagination; and identify various key scholars in the early development of sociology.

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