This work investigates the correlation between the material culture of non-industrialized societies and their corresponding social and political institutions. The authors, L. T. Hobhouse, G. C. Wheeler, and M. Ginsberg, utilize a comparative sociological framework to analyze how economic development influences the structure of family, law, and government. By examining a wide range of ethnographic data, they argue that social complexity evolves in tandem with technological and economic advancements.

Experts recognize this text as a foundational, albeit dated, contribution to the field of comparative sociology and early anthropological methodology. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the systematic, empirical approach the authors take toward social evolution.