ABSTRACT
James S. Coleman's own claims to "address the question of the peaceful coexistence of man and society, as two intersecting systems of action" are ambitious enough, without needing the adornment of puffery bordering on empty-headed flattery. Coleman writes the modern industrial society there have come to be two parallel organizational structures: a primordial structure based on, and derivative from, the family; and a newer structure composed of purposive corporate actors wholly independent of the family. Coleman has made wide use of the public choice models worked through in economics by James Buchanan, Gary Becker, and others. Coleman examines the place of sociology in a study of how welfare programs operate, of how the American soldier helped determine changing patterns of national integration, why those in authority use social research more than those who hold power. One would have to say of James Coleman that he is a good sociologist fallen among economists.
