Written and compiled by friends and former students, The Idea of Social Structure honors Robert K

Robert K. Merton the Man and the Work; Merton and the Contemporary Mind; Merton's Theory of Social Structure; Working with Merton; The Present Status of "Structural-Functional" Theory in Sociology; Merton's Uses of the European Sociological Tradition; On the Shoulders of Merton; Toward a New View of the Sociology of Knowledge; Structural Constraints of Status Complements; The Emergence of A Scientific Specialty; The Growth of Scientific Knowledge; Legitimate and Illegitimate Use of Power; The Complexity of Roles as a Seedbed of Individual Autonomy; Reference Individuals and Reference Idols; The Planning of Communities; Theory and Research; Ironic Perspective and Sociological Thought; On Formalizing Theory; Relative Deprivation; Social Structure and Mass Communications Behavior; In The Spirit of Merton; Sociology and the Everyday Life; Intellectual Types and Political Roles; 20: The Myth of the Renaissance*