Randall Collins is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Riverside. He earned his A.B. at Harvard in 1963, his M.A. at Stanford in 1964, and received his Ph.D. at University of California, Berkley in 1969. He is the author of numerous books and articles, such as Conflict Sociology: Toward an Explanatory Science, The Credential Society, Three Sociological Traditions, Weberian Sociological Theory, and Theoretical Sociology. Many of his works are of international interest, and have been translated into Italian, Duthc, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Rumanian, German, and Arabic.