Abstract
Samuel P. Huntington, who passed away in December 2008, was one of the most influential American political scientists and most prominent public intellectuals of the past fifty years.
This monograph focuses on his work and refers to his contribution to historical sociology. It presents his most important theses, sets them in context and compares them with ideas or works of relevant social scientists.
The work describes concepts which are closely related to problems of social change. Huntington often initiated and repeatedly framed the academic and broader debate on a stunning variety of issues: civil-military relations, productive critique of modernization theory, crisis of democracy in the 1970s, dynamics of the "third wave" of democratization, importance of civilization identity in the post-Cold War world, problems with multiculturalism, the huge impact of hispanic immigration on American identity and the complicated position of the United States in the geopolitical arena.