It is not clear why the new work, despite having a new editor and publisher, begins with a new volume numbering. Included are monographs and especially articles and reviews from anthologies and 365 journals. The range of journals is very broad but a complete listing is not provided. These main sections are further subdivided into 29 chapters, which average twenty pages in length and enable easy browsing.
Indexes provide added access by author, institution, and subject.
Some aspects of this work merit criticism. Bernhard Sch fers. There is no other work in sociology that synthesizes the discipline in this way, and it will maintain its value for experts and others interested in the field for a long time to come. Brief bibliographical references are included, and the subject index is perfectly adequate, if not comprehensive. A strength of the work is the inclusion of tables, graphs and other graphics.