ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 is likely to be the oldest chapter of the book. The first version of the chapter was drafted in the summer of 1971 (Parsons 1972a) and revised the subsequent year (Parsons 1973b). The chapter was, however, fully rewritten in the summer of 1975, when Parsons undertook a systematic revision of the whole first draft of the book. On that occasion, he wrote a whole new introductory section for the second chapter (Parsons 1975b) as well as making changes in several passages. Subsequently, the chapter has been kept in the folder more or less in the same form. In early 1979, Parsons wrote to Harry M. Johnson that he wanted to proceed to a new revision of chapter 2, introducing a new section concerning the issue of institutionalized individualism (Parsons 1979c). This revision, however, was never completed, and the typescript was modified only by a few handwritten inserts.
