Niall Bond's survey of Ferdinand Tönnies' intellectual biography retraces the origins of a founding work of the modern social sciences and classic of political thought to vital contrasts in his early life, philosophers, natural law theorists, the Enlightenment, the Romantic movement, the socialists of the lectern, Marx, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and nineteenth century legal theorists, illuminating the at times obscure intent behind Tönnies' sociology, theory of history and controversial, ground-breaking concepts.