Ronald Glassman, PhD, is a sociologist. He has taught at NYU, Connecticut College, the City University of New York, and William Paterson University. Professor Glassman is a specialist in historical sociology and has authored many books on democracy, including The Origins of Democracy in Tribes, City-States and Nation-States (2 vols.); The Middle Class and Democracy in Socio-Historical Perspective; The New Middle Class and Democracy in Global Perspective; Caring Capitalism; China in Transition: Communism, Capitalism, Democracy; Democracy and Equality; with William Swatos, Jr., Charisma, History, and Social Structure; and other books. Glassman teaches at NYU in the Liberal Studies Program and history courses at NYUSPS in the Center for Applied Liberal Arts.