Radical ambition: C. Wright Mills, the left, and American social thought

Introduction: maverick on a motorcycle? The thought and times of C. Wright Mills

Student ambitions: the education of a social scientist

What is happening in the world today: Weberian sociology and radical political analysis

The union of the power and the intellect: the labor movement and bureau-driven social research

The new little men: 'white collar'

The politics of truth: 'the power elite' and 'the sociological imagination'

Worldly amibitions: the emergence of a global new left

Epilogue: the legacy of C. Wright Mills.