Introduction to Sociology
George Ritzeris Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, where he has also been a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher and won a Teaching Excellence Award. He was awarded the 2000 Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award by the American Sociological Association and an honorary doctorate from LaTrobe University in Australia. His best-known work,The McDonaldization of Society,has been read by hundreds of thousands of students over two decades and translated into over a dozen languages.  Ritzer is also the author of a series best-selling social theory textbooks for McGraw-Hill;  McDonaldization: The Reader;  and other works of critical sociology related to the McDonaldization thesis, including A Critique of the Global Credit Card Society, Enchanting a Disenchanted World, The Globalization of Nothing,Globalization: A Basic Text,andThe Outsourcing of Everything. He is the Editor of theEncyclopedia of Social Theory(2 vols.), theEncyclopedia of Sociology(11 vols.), and theEncyclopedia of Globalization(5 vols.), and is Founding Editor of theJournal of Consumer Culture.In 2014 he published the second edition ofIntroduction to Sociologywith SAGE.