ABSTRACT
Kingsley Davis lived from 1908 to 1997. He taught at the University of Southern California as a Distinguished Professor from the fall of 1977 through the spring of 1990. There are two important reasons to remember his legacy. First is his contribution to social demography. Second is his contribution to sociology, particularly to sociological theory, the study of family and kinship, and social stratification. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The first part of the book consists of several short chapters, each devoted to a particular period of his life. The second elaborates on the period from 1936 through 1955 when Davis held academic positions successively at Clark University, Pennsylvania State University, Princeton University, and Columbia University. The third focuses on the period from 1955 to 1977 when Kingsley Davis was at the University of California at Berkeley.
