This book is in homage to Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt and is dedicated to an area of study whose contemporary development can be credited largely to him: the comparative study of modernities and civilizations. Two major sociological issues are at the center of this volume: the appropriate unit of socio-historical analysis and the question of the tensions and dilemmas that in contemporary societies oppose pluralism and homogeneity. Unlike most works that discuss this area of questions, the frame of discussion in this volume is civilizational analysis. The contributors to this book, renowned scholars from several countries, tackle these issues by referring to different temporal and spatial settings.