Chapter l: Introduction/ by Hans Daalder

Chapter 2: A founding father of comparative politics: Carl Joachim Friedrich/ by Klaus von Beyme

Chapter 3: The fusion of history and politics: the case of S.E. Finer/ by Dennis Kavanagh

Chapter 4: Europe's comparativist from the Norwegian periphery: Stein Rokkan/ by Hans Daalder

Chapter 5: Rudolf Wildenmann: German scholar, institution builder/ by Max Kaase

Chapter 6: A voice from the Chicago school, Gabriel A. Almond

Chapter 7: A brief intellectual autobiography, Robert A. Dahl

Chapter 8: From comparative political systems to the analysis of civilizations: the civilizational framework of European politics, S. N. Eisenstadt

Chapter 9: Chance, luck and stubbornness, Giovanni Sartori

Chapter 10: Between nations and disciplines: personal experience and intellectual understanding of societies and political regimes, Juan J. Linz

Chapter 11: Amateurs into professionals, Jean Blondel

Chapter 12: The art of writing about politics, Richard Rose

Chapter 13: Between France and universality: from implicit to explicit comparison, Jack Hayward

Chapter 14: Seeking to understand European politics, Gordon Smith

Chapter 15: The path to hesitant comparison, Vincent Wright

Chapter 16: Encounter with power, Pierre Birnbaum

Chapter 17: Providing against certainties: the discreet charms of political comparison, by Guy Hermet

Chapter 18: Exploring non-majoritarian democracy, by Gerhard Lehmbruch

Chapter 19: Walking on two legs: comparative politics in East and West, by Klaus von Beyme

Chapter 20: Four functions of comparison: an Austrian's tale, by Peter Gerlich

Chapter 21: A Smaller European's opening frontiers, by Hans Daalder

Chapter 22: About peripheries, centres and other autobiographical reflections, Arend Lijphart

Chapter 23: Present at the creation, by Mogens N. Pedersen

Chapter 24: Political sociology and comparative politics, Erik Allardt

Chapter 25: The Civic Culture and beyond: citizens, subjects and survey research in comparative politics, Sidney Verba

Chapter 26: Autobiographical reflections: or how to live with a conceptual albatross around one's neck, Philippe C. Schmitter

Chapter 27: Conflict and political order, Ted Robert Gurr

Chapter 28: A journey through the social sciences, Harold L. Wilensky