When asked by Malcolm Waters, author of Daniel Bell: Key Sociologist (1996), what his biographical sketch should focus on, Daniel Bell replied, "The sky's the limit." No statement could be more accurate for this American sociologist and journalist who is known for his precocious self-assessment, "I specialize in generalizations." Bell has been recognized as one of the most influential sociologists of the twentieth century, known primarily for his contributions to the understanding of ideology, postindustrial society, and the causes of social change.

Daniel Bell was born Daniel Bolotsky on 10 May 1919 on the Lower East Side of New York City. His parents, Benjamin and Anna Kaplan Bolotsky, were garment workers of Polish and Russian descent. The early stage of Bell's personal development in the garment district of New York City was clearly a formative one for his professional interests. In the volume of Routledge's Key Sociologists series dedicated to Bell...