Martin N. Marger


Martin N. Marger, Michigan State University

Dr. Marger received his AB from the University of Miami (1961), his MS from Florida State University (1962) and his Ph.D. from Michigan State University (1973).

He has taught at Waynesburg College, Northern Kentucky University, Michigan State University, and Wayne State University. He has taught and designed a wide range of courses across the sociological discipline at both undergraduate and graduate levels. At Northern Kentucky he was sociology coordinator in a tri-disciplinary department and at Michigan State he served as Associate Director of the Canadian Studies Center.

He is the author of three widely-used sociology texts, including Elites and Masses: An Introduction to Political Sociology, 2nd edition (Wadsworth, 1987); Race and Ethnic Relations: American and Global Perspectives, 10th edition (Cengage, 2015); and Social Inequality: Patterns and Processes, 6th edition (McGraw-Hill, 2014). He has published numerous articles in social science journals and is the co-editor with Marvin E. Olsen of Power in Modern Societies (Westview, 1993).

Though formally trained in sociology and political science, his academic perspective is strongly interdisciplinary and inclines toward a cross-national frame of reference.

Current research interests include the ideological bases of social and political inequality; contrasting Canadian and American social institutions; immigrant adaptation; and comparative religiosity. A book in progress analyzes the effectiveness of ideology in stabilizing social divisions and creating tolerance of growing income and wealth inequality.