Hughes's sociological prose is original in its avoidance of complex concepts. He never published explicitly theoretical work. However, his essays are analytically dense and he often discusses the task of sociology more broadly. In his preface for "The Sociological Eye", first published in 1971 (transaction edition published in 1984), he describes his approach to sociology with reference to C. Wright Mills's phrase the sociological imagination (Hughes 1984, xvi). In his final paragraphs to that preface he outlines his view of sociology and sociological method: