In the first two essays, a summary account of early sociology in England and Europe reviews foundational theories from a range of thinkers. Simone I. Flynn’s “Enlightenment Roots” establishes the “ways in which sociological thought has borrowed from and built on Enlightenment-era ideas.” Her essay “Sociology in the Nineteenth Century” introduces readers to the social, political, and economic transformations in Europe that would preoccupy sociological thinkers throughout the West.