<P> Parsons and Winston White cowrote an article, "The Link Between Character and Society," which was published in 1961 . It was a critical discussion of David Riesman's The Lonely Crowd, which had been published a decade earlier and had turned into an unexpected bestseller, reaching 1 million sold copies in 1977 . Riesman was a prominent member of the American academic left, influenced by Erich Fromm and the Frankfurt School . In reality, Riesman's book was an academic attempt to give credit to the concept of "mass society" and especially to the idea of an America suffocated in social conformity . Riesman had essentially argued that at the emerging of highly - advanced capitalism, the America basic value system and its socializing roles had change from an "inner - directed" toward an "other - directed" pattern of value - orientation . Parsons and White challenged Riesman's idea and argued that there had been no change away from an inner - directed personality structure . The said that Riesman's "other - directness" looked like a caricature of Charles Cooley's looking - glass self, and they argued that the framework of "institutional individualism" as the basic code - structure of America's normative system had essentially not changed . What had happen, however, was that the industrialized process and its increased pattern of societal differentiation had changed the family's generalized symbolic function in society and had allowed for a greater permissiveness in the way the child related to his parents . Parsons and White argued that was not the prelude to greater "otherdirectness" but a more complicated way by which inner - directed pattern situated itself in the social environment . </P> <P> 1963 was a notable year in Parsons's theoretical development because it was the year when he published two important articles: one on political power and one on the concept of social influence . The two articles represented Parsons's first published attempt to work out the idea of Generalized Symbolic Media as an integral part of the exchange processes within the AGIL system . It was a theoretical development, which Parsons had worked on ever since the publication of Economy and Society (1956). The prime model for the generalized symbolic media was money and Parsons was reflecting on the question whether the functional characteristics of money represented an exclusive uniqueness of the economic system or whether it was possible to identify other generalized symbolic media in other subsystems as well . Although each medium had unique characteristics, Parsons claimed that power (for the political system) and influence (for the societal community) had institutional functions, which essentially was structurally similar to the general systemic function of money . Using Roman Jakobson's idea of "code" and "message," Parsons divided the components of the media into a question of value - principle versus coordination standards for the "code - structure" and the question of factor versus product control within those social process which carried the "message" components . While "utility" could be regarded as the value - principle for the economy (medium: money), "effectiveness" was the value - principle for the political system (by political power) and social solidarity for the societal community (by social influence). Parsons would eventually chose the concept of value - commitment as the generalized symbolic medium for the fiduciary system with integrity as the value principle . </P> <P> In August 1963, Parsons got a new research assistant, Victor Lidz, who would become an important collaborator and colleague . In 1964, Parsons flew to Heidelberg to celebrate the 100th birthday of Weber and discuss Weber's work with Habermas, Herbert Marcuse, and others . Parsons delivered his paper "Evaluation and Objectivity in Social Science: An Interpretation of Max Weber's Contribution ." The meeting became in reality a clash between pro-Weberian scholars and the Frankfurt School . Before leaving for Germany, Parsons discussed the upcoming meeting with Reinhard Bendix and commented, "I am afraid I will be something of a Daniel in the Lion's den ." Bendix wrote back and told Parsons that Marcuse sounded very much like Christoph Steding, a Nazi philosopher . </P> <P> Parsons conducted a persistent correspondence with noted scholar Benjamin Nelson, And he shared a common interest in the rise and the destiny of civilizations until Nelson's death in 1977 . The two scholars also shared a common enthusiasm for the work of Weber and would generally agree on the main interpretative approach to the study of Weber . Nelson had participated in the Weber Centennial in Heidelberg . </P>

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