ABSTRACT
Giddens dawned on us just when this mess was most foul. Thus, because his best early books were indeed critical rethinkings of classic social theor ists in the apparent style of Parsons, Giddens' early reputation was fixed negatively in the minds of many. That, in the years hence, he has done so brilliantly well in the minds of so many others is tribute indeed to the seduct ive quality of the thinking and writing. But it is tribute as well to a feature of his thinking that is all too easy to miss if one thinks of his method as 'mere theory', namely, the breathtaking inventiveness of Giddens' method of social thought, an invention so important, if not always successful, that one can hardly estimate the value of his ideas without taking prior account of the method from which they issue.
