Bio: (1917–2003) American sociologist. William Goode lectured at several universities: Wayne State, Columbia, Stanford, Harvard, and George Mason. He served as the 63rd President of the American Sociological Association.

Goode’s best-known work is World Revolution and Family Patterns (1963). In it, he presents a large research of set family patterns in fifty societies, over half a century, during the process of industrialization. Using Parsons’s theory, which states that all contemporary societies are merging towards a nuclear family system as the standard, Goode tested the hypothesis that, in fact, family patterns are actually converging. The explanation for this trend is that the modern capitalist system needs a highly mobile and flexible population, and that an isolated nuclear family best fulfills this need.

Goode supported feminist goals and, with Cynthia Fuchs Epstein, co-edited the book The Other Half: Roads to Women’s Equality (1971). In The Celebration of Heroes (1978), Goode researches how prestige, honor, and respect are produced and distributed in society. His book, World Changes in Divorce Patterns (1993), presents his cross-cultural analysis of divorce, outlining the theoretical basis for analysis and prediction of divorces in different societies.

Main works

Religion Among the Primitives (1951);

Methods in Social Research (1952);

After Divorce (1956);

‘‘The Theoretical Importance of Love’’, in American Sociological Review (1959);

Theory of Role Strain (1960);

World Revolution and Family Patterns (1963);

The Other Half: Roads to Women’s Equality (1971).

‘‘The Place of Force in Human Society’’, in American Sociological Review (1972);

Explorations in Social Theory (1973);

Principles of Sociology (1977);

The Celebration of Heroes (1978);

The Family (1982);

World Changes in Divorce Patterns (1993).