The author surveys themes in the field of historical sociology, in terms of the leading figures in the field, the relationship between history and sociology, and how sociology views the human individual in society and history. He considers the interrelationship between sociology and historical science and the perspective historical sociology can offer on humans, society, and history; different theories of social change, including crises, collapses, and disasters; the significance, topicality, and inspirational influence of sociological thinkers like Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Émile Durkheim, and Maurice Halbwachs; concepts related to social systems, structures, and functions, including structural functionalism, stratification and conflict theory, structuralism and poststructuralism, systems theory, and world-systems theory; ideas about culture and civilization, including the work of Norbert Elias, Jaroslav Krejci, and Shmuel N. Eisenstadt; the problems of modernization, including the paths to modern society, nationalism, totalitarianism, wars and violence, the theory of modernization, the first and second modernities, and the transformations of contemporary societies; and the sociological perspective on the human individual in society and history, with an emphasis on major historical individuals.