'Throughout his long career, Michael Hechter has been one of the discipline's most creative and exacting theorists. This volume pulls together some of his most important publications, showing an extraordinary range of contributions to a variety of substantive problems--from the foundations of social order, to the formation of group solidarity, civil war, rebellion, state structures, and the foundations of class versus identity politics.'--Andrew G. Walder, Stanford University, US'This is one of the finest collections of papers in sociological theory. Michael Hechter's work on sociological rational choice theory captivates with its creative application to a multitude of different topics among them the key questions of solidarity, social change, and social order. Hechter shows that sociological rational choice theory is much more than a utility maximization device. By adding ''value'' to rational choice he elegantly comes to innovative and often surprising explanations of social phenomena. Dealing with the work of this most eminent theorist is a must for any scholar interested in sociological theory and its applications.'--Andreas Diekmann, ETH Zurich, Switzerland and University of Leipzig, Germany'Michael Hechter has pioneered the application of rational choice theory to sociology. The range of his contributions--and the extent to which he has refined the theory--is well represented in this collection of seminal essays on key sociological topics, such as demography, nationalism, historical sociology, collective action, state formation and social norms. If the discipline has now acquired firm analytical foundations, it is to a great extent thanks to Hechter's scholarship. No student of sociology can afford to ignore such an extraordinary body of work.'--Federico Varese, University of Oxford, UK
