He publishes mainly in the fields of social and political theory. His Ph.D. thesis (1987) investigated the political language of 'Caesarism' in nineteenth century European thought. With Gordon Wells, he is presently editing a book of Max Weber's writings on Russia (Polity Press). This review of Sebeok draws on issues discussed in a forthcoming work with Mike O'Brien (Department of History, Queen's University) on sociological traditions. Their research will be published as a full number of Current Sociology.