Tom Bottomore brought to British sociology a concern with social theory, especially (but by no means entirely) Marxist theory; with social movements; and with what came to be called the Third World. He was one of the leading members of the generation of British sociologists who passed through the London School of Economics (LSE) just after World War II. After a year's research in Paris on Marx and on the French civil service, he returned to the LSE, where he taught from 1952 to 1965. Following two years at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, he took up a chair at the University of Sussex, which he held until his retirement in 1985. He put into practice his thoroughly international approach in many years of patient work developing the International Sociological Association, of which he was president from 1974 to 1978; he was also president of the British Sociological Association from 1969 to 1971.