In their introduction to this edition, Riesman and Becker provide a biographical background to HughesÅ writing, describing his pervading influence in the field of sociology and on younger sociologists through his teaching, fieldwork, work in professional associations, and personality. The essays are grouped into four sections: the relationship of social institutions to changes in their surroundings and to the personalities and careers of persons; problems of multi-athnic societies; the development of occupations, the monopoly license of professions, the determination of public policy about a line of work, and the relations between work and social role; and social observation and analysis.