The contributors to this book, sociologists all, take Harriet Martineau seriously as a major and consequential intellect within their chosen discipline and their classrooms. It has not always been so, at least in recent times, but Martineau has now been rediscovered by sociologists who are writing about Martineau in a growing series of books, essays, and scholarly editions. We do not all see Martineau through the same author spectacles, as the following contributions make evident, but we do see her-she is no longer invisible to those of our students and colleagues who possess a modicum of bibliographic savvy. At several points in this book, readers are presented with contextual background and biographical details about Martineau, information that is useful and necessary for readers who are still new to Martineau\u27s work, but it warrants notice that the time for penning generic introductory synopses of Martineau and her accomplishments is drawing to a close-several sociological introductions are readily available and are cited among the references at the end of this book. Along this line, although uncited in the present bibliography, a growing number of introductory sociology textbooks now make at ieast passing reference to Martineau (Hill 1998). Harriet Martineau has arrived on the doorstep of the twenty-first century sociological scene, and it is high time that the discipline\u27s scholars, thinkers, and theoreticians take her seriously
