Ferdinand Tonnies. Community and Society. New York, Harper & Row, Publishers, 1963.

Like many an eminent thinker, Tönnies was a man of one central idea, which he developed in its various ramifications in practically all his theoretical works. This central idea is, of course, his theory of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft as two different modes of mentality and behavior, and as two different types of society. In its essentials the theory did not originate with Tönnies. Like many fundamental cate gories of social thought, it is in a sense eternal, appearing long before Tönnies and reiterated after him. The Gemeinschaft type of mentality and society was extolled by Confucius: Confucius theory of the five fundamental social relationships of father and son, elder brother and younger, husband and wife, ruler and subject, friend and friend closely resembles Tönnies main Gemeinschaft ties between mother and child, father and children, sisters and brothers, friends and friends, and rul-ers and subjects. Confucius not only unfolded the Gemeinschaft type of society but also set it off against the Gesellschaft type. In his theory of the main stages of human society he differentiated the Gesellschaft type by the term "Small Tranquillity" in contradistinction to that of the "Great Similarity," or Gemeinschaft stage.