Sociology and anthropology Books

Book SynopsisIn this stimulating book, Goldsmith argues that biology has a great deal to say that should be of interest to social scientists, historians, philosophers, and humanists in general. He believes that anyone studying the social behaviour of humans must take into consideration both proximate cause - the physiology, biochemistry, and social mechanisms of behavior - and ultimate cause - how the behavior came to exist in evolutionary time. Goldsmith, a neurobiologist, draws examples from neurobiology, psychology, and ethology (behavioral evolution). The result is a work that overcomes mant of the misconceptions that have hindered the rich contributions the biological sciences have to offer concerning the evolution of human society, behavior, and sense of identity. Among the key topics addressed are the nature of biological explanation, the relationship between genes and behavior, those aspects of behavior most likely to respond to natural selection, the relationship between evolution and learning, and some probable modes of interaction between cultural and biological evolution. By re-examining the role of biological explanation in the domain of social development, the author has significantly advanced a more well-rounded view of human evolution and shed new light on the perennial question of what it means to be human. His book will appea to biologists, social scientists, traditional humanists, and interested general readers.Trade Review"The book is well-written and amasses considerable evidence in support of its thesis. ... He (Goldsmith) brings to his work not only familiarity with evolutionary theory but also his particular skills as a neurobiologist. So he is in a better than average position to make the connections between genetics, neurobiology and psychology as these affect behavior." -- New Ideas in Psychology "The strength of the book is. . .the succinct way in which Goldsmith explains many of the confusing and misunderstood elements of sociobiology." --Choice "An outstanding work reflecting careful synthesis and great explanatory power. A superb achievement that provides a succinct and readable overview of an extraordinarily broad and complex area."--Owen D. Jones, Professor of Law, Arizona State University "The book is well-written and amasses considerable evidence in support of its thesis. ... He (Goldsmith) brings to his work not only familiarity with evolutionary theory but also his particular skills as a neurobiologist. So he is in a better than average position to make the connections between genetics, neurobiology and psychology as these affect behavior." -- New Ideas in Psychology "The strength of the book is. . .the succinct way in which Goldsmith explains many of the confusing and misunderstood elements of sociobiology." --Choice "An outstanding work reflecting careful synthesis and great explanatory power. A superb achievement that provides a succinct and readable overview of an extraordinarily broad and complex area."--Owen D. Jones, Professor of Law, Arizona State UniversityTable of Contents1. The dual nature of causation in biology ; 2. Some fallacies and misconceptions ; 3. Evolutionary times since Darwin ; 4. Reasoning about ultimate causes of behavior ; 5. Getting from genes to behavior ; 6. Evolutionary perspectives on volition, learning, and language ; 7. Decisions, Decisions! ; 8. Culture, anthropology, and evolution ; Epilogue: Concerning "Biological Reductionism"

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Book SynopsisWhat sort of support do human capacities demand from the world, and how should we think about this support when we encounter differences of gender or sexuality? How should we think about each other across divisions that a legacy of injustice has created? In Sex and Social Justice, Martha Nussbaum delves into these questions and emerges with a distinctive conception of feminism that links feminist inquiry closely to the important progress that has been made during the past few decades in articulating theories of both national and global justice. Growing out of Nussbaum''s years of work with an international development agency connected with the United Nations, this collection charts a feminism that is deeply concerned with the urgent needs of women who live in hunger and illiteracy, or under unequal legal systems. Offering an internationalism informed by development economics and empirical detail, many essays take their start from the experiences of women in developing countries. NussbTrade ReviewHard-hitting, in Nussbaum's characteristic take-no-prisoners style, setting out a clear case that women endure ignominious oppression in the name of culture and religion, and that feminists and liberals alike should tolerate it no longer ... well written and an easy read ... this is a good book for those who want an introduction to, or survey of, Nussbaum's recent thinking on popular issues. * American Political Science Review *Sex and Social Justice is highly readable, and very engaging. It is elegantly written and carefully argued. * Alan Ryan, The New York Times Book Review *Table of ContentsPART I: JUSTICE ; PART II: SEX

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Book SynopsisThis book offers a series of reflections on the state of Christianity, and especially Catholicism, in the world today. The centrepiece of the volume is a lecture by the renowned philosopher Charles Taylor, from which the title of the book is taken. The lecture, delivered at Dayton University in January of 1996, offered Taylor the opportunity to speak about his theological views and his sense of the cultural placement of Catholicism, its history and trajectory. Four well-known commentators on religion and society were invited to respond to Taylor''s lecture: William M. Shea, George Marsden, Jean Bethke Elshtain, and Rosemary Luling-Haughton. Their chapters offer a variety of astute reflections on the tensions between religion and modernity, and in particular on the role that Catholicism can and should play in contemporary society.Trade ReviewContains a remarkably succinct and explicit statement of Taylor's most basic religious commitments, responses by fellow Catholic scholars, and Taylor's concluding reflections and comments. * Commonweal *Table of Contents1: Charles Taylor: A Catholic Modernity? 2: William M. Shea: "A Vote of Thanks to Voltaire" 3: Rosemary Luling-Haughton: Transcendence and the Bewilderment of Being Modern 4: George Marsden: Matteo Ricci and the Prodigal Culture 5: Jean Bethke Elshtain: Augustine and Diversity 6: Charles Taylor: Concluding Reflections and Comments

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Book SynopsisThe appearance of religion as a category describing a set of practices and beliefs allegedly an aspect of all cultures dates only from the modern period, emerging as Europe expanded trade abroad and established its first colonial relations in the 17th and 18th centuries. The invention of Hinduism can be seen in the encounter between modernity''s greatest colonial power, Britain, and the jewel of her imperial crown, India. This encounter was deeply shaded by the articulation and development of the concept of religion, and it produced the now common idea that Hinduism is a religion. The Bengal Presidency, home of Calcutta - the capital of colonial India and center of economic gravity in the eastern hemisphere - emerged as the locus of ongoing and direct contact between Indians and colonial officials, journalists, and missionaries. Drawing on a large body of previously untapped literature, including documents from the Church Missionary Society and Bengali newspapers, Brian Pennington offeTrade ReviewPennington gives us an insightful, creative, judicious, critical, and honest book that goes a long way to restoring some balance into the discussion about colonialism and Hinduism. I cannot recommend this book enough. * Carl Olson, International Journal of Hindu Studies *

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Book SynopsisThe question What can justify criminal punishment ? becomes especially insistent at times, like our own, of penal crisis, when serious doubts are raised not only about the justice or efficacy of particular modes of punishment, but about the very legitimacy of the whole penal system. Recent theorizing about punishment offers a variety of answers to that question-answers that try to make plausible sense of the idea that punishment is justified as being deserved for past crimes; answers that try to identify some beneficial consequences in terms of which punishment might be justified; as well as abolitionist answers telling us that we should seek to abolish, rather than to justify, criminal punishment. This book begins with a critical survey of recent trends in penal theory, but goes on to develop an original account (based on Duff''s earlier Trials and Punishments) of criminal punishment as a mode of moral communication, aimed at inducing repentance, reform, and reconciliation through repTrade Review"R.A. Duff's "Punishment, Communication and Community" is a closely reasoned case for a distinctive normative justification of punishment based on mediation and probation."--The Law and Politics Book Review, August 2001"Duff rejects the ultimate exclusionary penalty (capital punishment) for even the most dangerous of criminals and crimes; a reading of his reasons for doing so is a skillful journey through the relevant current literature."--Choice, October 2001"Punishment, Communication, and Community is a masterful, comprehensive analysis of the justification of punishment in general and a landmark contribution to the communicative theory of state punishment that combines theoretical rigor, practical recommendations and humane common sense. Few will entirely agree with [the book], but all will be challenged. Duff's innovative work is required reading for criminal law theorists and policy makers."--Stephen J. Morse, University of Pennsylvania Law School"In this masterly work, Professor Duff offers a penetrating assessment of recent work on penal philosophy and then develops his own communicative theory of punishment, which turns on ideas of community, penance and reconciliation. His account emphasizes the value of proportionate punishments designed to persuade offenders to face up to the implications of their crimes as public wrongs. Elegant in its philosophical argument and practical in its discussion of contemporary sentencing, this book sets the highest standards for work in this vital area of public policy at the start of a new millennium."--Andrew J. Ashworth, University of Oxford"Antony Duff has in recent years established himself as one of our foremost philosophers of punishment, arguing for a communicative view of justified punishment that sees it as a form of secular penance . In this book, he offers his fullest account of this theory to date. His approach, if generally adopted, would require a transformation of many of our existing practices of state punishment. This is a deep and challenging volume: no-one who is seriously concerned with the nature of and justification for state punishment can afford to neglect its arguments."--Anthony Bottoms, Institute of Criminology, Cambridge University"A compelling antidote and challenge to death penalty advocates who believe that the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh for killing 164 people will bring consolation to survivors and serve justice."--Choice"Duff rejects the ultimate exclusionary penalty (capital punishment) for even the most dangerous of criminals and crimes; a reading of his reasons for doing so is a skillful journey through the relevant current literature" - -CHOICE"This new book is a major contribution to our understanding of criminal justice and its contemporary politics. For every word in the book that gives succour to today's alarming trends in criminal justice policy, there are ten more that expose cant, ignorance, and confusion. For a philosophical work to engage so closely with current politics and practice without sacrificing philosophical quality is a rare achievement indeed." --John Gardner Punishment and Society

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Book SynopsisOver the past century, Christianity''s place and role in the world have changed dramatically. In 1900, 80 percent of the world''s Christians lived in Europe and North America. Today, more than 60 percent of the world''s Christians live outside of that region. This change calls for a reexamination of the way the story of Christianity is told, the methodological tools for its analysis, and its modes of expression. Perhaps most significant is the role of Africa as the new Christian heartland. The questions and answers about Christianity and its contemporary mission now being developed in the African churches will have enormous influence in the years to come. This volume offers nine new essays addressing this sea-change and its importance for the future of Christianity. Some contributions consider the development of non-Western forms of Christianity, others look at the impact of these new Christianities in the West. The authors cover a wide range of topics, from the integration of witchcra

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Book SynopsisThe fable of the Emperor''s New Clothes is a classic example of a conspiracy of silence, a situation where everyone refuses to acknowledge an obvious truth. But the denial of social realities--whether incest, alcoholism, corruption, or even genocide--is no fairy tale. In The Elephant in the Room, Eviatar Zerubavel sheds new light on the social and political underpinnings of silence and denial--the keeping of open secrets. The author shows that conspiracies of silence exist at every level of society, ranging from small groups to large corporations, from personal friendships to politics. Drawing on examples from newspapers and comedy shows to novels, children''s stories, and film, the book travels back and forth across different levels of social life, and from everyday moments to large-scale historical events. At its core, The Elephant in the Room helps us understand why we ignore truths that are known to all of us. Zerubavel shows how such conspiracies evolve, illuminating the social pTrade Review"Among academic intellectuals, Eviatar Zerubavel--please make that a household name in your household--gleams as a star.... He gathers intriguing ideas for books the way ace foreign correspondents acquire great stories: by reflecting on the obvious, then probing as well as reporting."--Carlin Romano, The Philadelphia Inquirer "Eviatar Zerubavel has always had a remarkable facility for examining everyday human life through a different and richer lens than the rest of us. He notes in this compelling essay that when people block something out of their line of vision or rearrange their memories in such a way as to forget something, they are involved in a personal act. But his main point is that those acts of blocking and forgetting and remaining silent are really collective behavior, a form of collusion, a product of the social world. This is a rare mind at work."--Kai Erikson, author of A New Species of Trouble: Explorations in Disaster, Trauma, and Community "With characteristic zest and insight, Eviatar Zerubavel talks about all those things we are generally reluctant to talk about. The Elephant in the Room represents the sociological imagination in full flower."--Alan Wolfe, author of Return to Greatness: How America Lost Its Sense of Purpose and What It Needs to Do to Recover It "The Elephant in the Room is another eye-opening book from Eviatar Zerubavel. Here he gives us a guide to all the many ways in which we fail to see all the elephants in our own living rooms. Brilliant, lucid, and certainly timely."--Arlie Hochschild, author of The Time Bind and The Commercialization of Intimate Life "Eviatar Zerubavel possesses one of the most interesting minds in American sociology. In The Elephant in the Room, he connects insights into how the mind works with a ruthless realism about the functioning of society. The results are not pretty, but they are important, and make for compulsive reading. Zerubavel shows how the sociological imagination can cast a penetrating light on the most important questions of the day."--Jeffrey C. Alexander, author of The Civil Sphere "This is an interesting, thought-provoking, and delightful book. Reading it is easy and rewarding. The writing style is straightforward, with hardly any jargon, and Zerubavel makes rich and wise use of countless illustratons, connections, and associations....I have absolutely no hesitation to recommend highly and warmly this intelligent book--reading it is both an intellectual adventure and a genuine pleasure."--American Journal of Sociology "In a brilliantly ironic tour de force, Eviatar Zerubavel has finally talked about a topic that nobody has talked about so well: those topics that people refuse to talk about despite common knowledge. Once again, Zerubavel displays his extraordinary talent for seeing scintillation where others see only clouds."--Viviana Zelizer, author of The Purchase of Intimacy "Eviatar Zerubavel's masterful work, The Elephant in the Room, offers a profound education for everyone who has ever held their tongue on matters large and small. His insightful--and riveting--analysis of silence and denial echoes in the mind long after we close the book."-- Neil Gilbert, author of Transformation of the Welfare State: The Silent Surrender of Public Responsibility "With characteristic zest and insight, Eviatar Zerubavel talks about all those things we are generally reluctant to talk about. The Elephant in the Room represents the sociological imagination in full flower."--Alan Wolfe, author of Return to Greatness: How America Lost Its Sense of Purpose and What It Needs to Do to Recover It "Among academic intellectuals, Eviatar Zerubavel--please make that a household name in your household--gleams as a star.... He gathers intriguing ideas for books the way ace foreign correspondents acquire great stories: by reflecting on the obvious, then probing as well as reporting."--Carlin Romano, The Philadelphia Inquirer "The Elephant in the Room is another eye-opening book from Eviatar Zerubavel. Here he gives us a guide to all the many ways in which we fail to see all the elephants in our own living rooms. Brilliant, lucid, and certainly timely."--Arlie Hochschild, author of The Time Bind and The Commercialization of Intimate Life "Zerubavel is well-read and marvelously conversant on the subject...the book excels as a socio-historical account of silence's machinations."--Publishers Weekly "Eviatar Zerubavel has always had a remarkable facility for examining everyday human life through a different and richer lens than the rest of us. He notes in this compelling essay that when people block something out of their line of vision or rearrange their memories in such a way as to forget something, they are involved in a personal act. But his main point is that those acts of blocking and forgetting and remaining silent are really collective behavior, a form of collusion, a product of the social world. This is a rare mind at work."--Kai Erikson, author of A New Species of Trouble: Explorations in Disaster, Trauma, and Community "Eviatar Zerubavel possesses one of the most interesting minds in American sociology. In The Elephant in the Room, he connects insights into how the mind works with a ruthless realism about the functioning of society. The results are not pretty, but they are important, and make for compulsive reading. Zerubavel shows how the sociological imagination can cast a penetrating light on the most important questions of the day."--Jeffrey C. Alexander, author of The Civil Sphere "This is an interesting, thought-provoking, and delightful book. Reading it is easy and rewarding. The writing style is straightforward, with hardly any jargon, and Zerubavel makes rich and wise use of countless illustratons, connections, and associations....I have absolutely no hesitation to recommend highly and warmly this intelligent book--reading it is both an intellectual adventure and a genuine pleasure."--American Journal of Sociology "In a brilliantly ironic tour de force, Eviatar Zerubavel has finally talked about a topic that nobody has talked about so well: those topics that people refuse to talk about despite common knowledge. Once again, Zerubavel displays his extraordinary talent for seeing scintillation where others see only clouds."--Viviana Zelizer, author of The Purchase of Intimacy "Eviatar Zerubavel's masterful work, The Elephant in the Room, offers a profound education for everyone who has ever held their tongue on matters large and small. His insightful--and riveting--analysis of silence and denial echoes in the mind long after we close the book."-- Neil Gilbert, author of Transformation of the Welfare State: The Silent Surrender of Public ResponsibilityTable of ContentsPreface 1: A Conspiracy of Silence Open Secrets - See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil - Fear and Embarrassment - The Heavy Hand of Silence: 2: The Rules of Denial Attention and Culture - Learning to Ignore - The Rules of Irrelevance - Taboo - Tact: 3: The Politics of Denial Attention and Power - Mind Your Own Business - Button Your Lip: 4: The Social Structure of Denial The Double Wall of Silence - Denying the Denial - Bystanders and Enablers - Silence Like a Cancer Grows: 5: Breaking the Silence From Awareness to Acknowledgment - Unveiling the Elephant - Blind Eyes and Deaf Ears: 6: Some Things are Better Left Unsaid Saving Face - Don't Rock the Boat: 7: The Trouble with Elephants The Ostrich and the Elephant: Notes Bibliography Author Index Subject Index

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Book SynopsisCatastrophic risks are much greater than is commonly appreciated. Collision with an asteroid, runaway global warming, voraciously replicating nanomachines, a pandemic of gene-spliced smallpox launched by bioterrorists, and a world-ending accident in a high-energy particle accelerator, are among the possible extinction events that are sufficiently likely to warrant careful study. How should we respond to events that, for a variety of psychological and cultural reasons, we find it hard to wrap our minds around? Posner argues that realism about science and scientists, innovative applications of cost-benefit analysis, a scientifically literate legal profession, unprecedented international cooperation, and a pragmatic attitude toward civil liberties are among the keys to coping effectively with the catastrophic risks.Trade Review...fascinating, disturbing. * Short Book Reviews, Publication of the International Statistical Institute *Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION ; 1. WHAT ARE THE CATASTROHPIC RISKS, AND HOW CATASTROPHIC ARE THEY? ; 2. WHY SO LITTLE IS BEING DONE ABOUT THE CATASTROPHIC RISKS ; 3. HOW TO EVALUATE THE CATASTROPHIC RISKS AND THE POSSIBLE RESPONSES TO THEM ; 4. HOW TO REDUCE THE CATASTROPHIC RISKS ; CONCLUSION

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Book SynopsisFor over four centuries the Catholic Church enjoyed a religious monopoly in Latin America in which potential rivals were repressed or outlawed. Latin Americans were born Catholic and the only real choice they had was whether to actively practice the faith. Taking advantage of the legal disestablishment of the Catholic Church between the late 1800s and the early 1900s, Pentecostals almost single-handedly built a new pluralist religious economy. By the 1950s, many Latin Americans were free to choose from among the hundreds of available religious products, a dizzying array of religious options that range from the African-Brazilian religion of Umbanda to the New Age group known as the Vegetable Union. R. Andrew Chesnut shows how the development of religious pluralism over the past half-century has radically transformed the spiritual economy of Latin America. In order to thrive in this new religious economy, says Chesnut, Latin American spiritual firms must develop an attractive product and know how to market it to popular consumers. Three religious groups, he demonstrates, have proven to be the most skilled competitors in the new unregulated religious economy. Protestant Pentecostalism, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, and African diaspora religions such as Brazilian Candomble and Haitian Vodou have emerged as the most profitable religious producers. Chesnut explores the general effects of a free market, such as introduction of consumer taste and product specialization, and shows how they have played out in the Latin American context. He notes, for example, that women make up the majority of the religious consumer market, and explores how the three groups have developed to satisfy women''s tastes and preferences. Moving beyond the Pentecostal boom and the rise and fall of liberation theology, Chesnut provides a fascinating portrait of the Latin American religious landscape.Trade Review"This boldly argued book is the best statement available to date of the political economy model as applied to the study of religious change in Latin America. The author providesa a wealth of data on the emergence and extraordinary growth of pneumacentric (spirit-centered) religions in Latin America. A significant book, with a powerful argument, convincing results, and a range of operational concepts that the author applies very effectively to explain a range of phenomena in a unified and consistent way."-- Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion"This is a bold, meticulous, and highly provocative study of Latin America's free-market religious economy. In identifying a high level of 'consumer demand for spirit-centered religion,' Chesnut has employed a dynamic and controversial model for understanding the reasons behind the rapid growth of Pentecostalism, Catholic Charismatic Renewal, and the religions of the African diaspora in Latin America during recent decades. This is rich, engaging, and important study that should provide grist for scholarly debate for some time to come."--Virginia Garrard-Burnett, Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Texas, Austin"Andrew Chesnut has written the must-read book on Latin American religion. The theoretical insights and empirical depth of this work are simply astounding. While specifically concerned with Brazil, Mexico and Guatemala, Chesnut's conclusions about the dynamism of charismatic religious movements extend well beyond these geographical confines. Indeed, anyone interested in contemporary religious movements will find this book indispensable."--Anthony Gill, author of Rendering Unto Caesar: The Catholic Church and the State in Latin America"This is a very rare achievement: first rate history combined with an admirable grasp of social science, expressed in stylish prose. The result is a work of very great significance that not only describes, but helps to explain, the remarkable religious changes going on in Latin America."--Rodney Stark, University of WashingtonTable of Contents1.: Introduction: The New Temples of Religious Pluralism 2.: One True Faith: Four Centuries of Religious Monopoly 3.: Cornering the Market: An Anatomy of Pentecostal Success 4.: A Preferential Option for the Spirit: The Catholic Charismatic Renewal 5.: Entreprenurial Spirits: Religions of the African Diaspora 6.: Practical Consumers: The Success of Pneumacentric Religion Among Women 7.: Conclusion: Ex Uno Plura (Out of One: Many)

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Book SynopsisDrawing on a large body of previously untapped literature, including documents from the Church Missionary Society and Bengali newspapers, Brian Pennington offers a fascinating portrait of the process by which Hinduism came into being. He argues against the common idea that the modern construction of religion in colonial India was simply a fabrication of Western Orientalists and missionaries. Rather, he says, it involved the active agency and engagement of Indian authors as well, who interacted, argued, and responded to British authors over key religious issues such as image-worship, sati, tolerance, and conversion.Trade ReviewThe flourishing of new knowledge of India's past by British and European scholars and administrators, the emergence of a post-theological notion of religion based on an comparative paradigm of universal religiousness in the contexts of cultural specificity, an increasingly insistent Protestant mission movement, a secular utilitarian notion of civilization, and a new discourse of Hindu among Indians in India were taking place simultaneously in the early nineteenth century. Brian Pennington has investigated each of these threads and their interwoven complexity and located them within the matrix of the post-colonial academic study of religion. A worthy and worthwhile contribution to understanding a misunderstood past. * Paul B. Courtright, Professor of South Asian Religions, Emory University *I read this study of cultural encounters between early-19th-century Hindus and British Christians with a sense of profound relief. The work complicates and problematises the simplifications that much of postcolonial studies operate with. By producing a richly textured account of religious debates and evangelical traditions in Britain, it not only provides a historical context for missionary lives, it also teases apart the multiple and contradictory strands within evangelicalism, normally taken to be a seamless monolith. Changes within modern Hinduism, similarly, are shown to be authentically internal developments that accommodate, but are not dictated by, the influence of new cultural encounters. Pennington deftly combines social and doctrinal themes, and his reading of Bengali, colonial, and missionary print cultures is stimulating. This is a book of many histories, all of which are complex and unexpected. * Tanika Sarkar, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University *Pennington has written an important book that redirects attention to historical agents that mainstream postcolonial scholarship has largely either oversimplified or passed over. He helps to advance a new wave of scholarship that rejects the essentialism of stereotypical, unitary visions not only of 'the East' but also of 'the West.' * Steven S. Maughan, Albertson College *Was Hinduism Invented? is a timely and cogent reconsideration of Hinduism as a word, a concept and, refreshingly, a reality that became apparent in sharp focus in 19th-century British India. Penningtons command of primary sources combines with alertness to current issues in the study of religion to demonstrate why Hinduism, properly understood, sheds new light on how and on what terms India and the West discovered one another, why Hindus and Christians relate as they do today, and how religions are best conceived and studied. * Francis X. Clooney, SJ, author of Divine Mother, Blessed Mother: Hindu Goddesses and the Virgin Mary *

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Book SynopsisThis title attempts to look at some of the key theoretical and empirical debates in the fields of urbanization, industrialization and stratification in India. It engages with the problems of typologies - tribal, peasant and industrial - in order to understand the problem of modernity and tradition in India.

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Book SynopsisThese eleven essays look at the current state of sociology in Britain from a number of intriguing perspectives. How important is it for British sociologists to be aware of the historical development of their subject in this country? How is British sociology seen by British scholars working in related fields, such as social history, social anthropology and demography? And how are British sociologists perceived by their colleagues working abroad, in particular in continental Europe? A concluding essay by the President of the British Sociological Association identifies the recurring themes in these reflections.Trade ReviewConsistently thoughtful and insightful. The tone is conversational and the essays combine (self-) criticism and (self-) contragulation in varying degrees. * Contemporary Sociology *Table of ContentsTHE VIEW FROM WITHIN; THE VIEW FROM WITHOUT; THE VIEW FROM ABROAD

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Book SynopsisThe only brief cultural anthropology text specifically designed to prepare students to read ethnographies more effectively and with greater understanding, this is a concise introduction to the basic ideas and practices of contemporary cultural anthropology.

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Book SynopsisThis edition of Andrew Skinner's essays has been updated to take account of his latest thinking on Adam Smith's system of social and moral science and his experience of teaching Smith to a student audience.

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Book SynopsisThe book brings together leading international figures in political theory and sociology, as well as representatives from the political community, to consider the normative issues at stake in the relationship between environmental sustainability and social justice.Trade ReviewA fruitful collaboration ... the volume exhibits a high degree of coherence of purpose. Its purpose, moreover, is not purely academic, but includes a concern to offer guidance for policy-makers ... cutting-edge contributions to this important new area of inquiry. * Environemental Values *A welcome contribution to the debate, especially to the complex relationship between sustainability and social justice ... this book is an important reading for all those who are genuinely interested in sustainability, sustainable development and social justice and their often problematic relationship. * Environmental Politics *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; PART ONE ; 1. Sustainable Development as a Contested Concept ; 2. Sustainability: Should We Start from Here? ; PART TWO ; 3. Sustainable Development and Our Obligations to Future ; 4. Sustainability and Intergenerational Justice ; 5. Ecology and Opportunity: Intergenerational Equity and Sustainable Options ; 6. Social Justice and Environmental Goods ; 7. An Extension of the Rawlsian Savings Principle to Liberal Theories of Justice in General ; 8. Sustainable Development and Accumulation of Capital: Reconciling the Irreconcilable ; PART THREE ; 9. Must the Poor pay More? Sustainable Development, Social Justice, and Environmental Taxation ; 10. Ecological Degradation: A Cause for Conflict, a Concern for Survival ; Index

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Book SynopsisVery Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring Emotions are complex mental states that resist reduction. They are visceral reactions but also beliefs about the world. They are spontaneous outbursts but also culturally learned performances. They are intimate and private and yet gain their substance and significance only from interpersonal and social frameworks. And just as our emotions in any given moment display this complex structure, so their history is plural rather than singular. The history of emotions is where the history of ideas meets the history of the body, and where the history of subjectivity meets social and cultural history.In this Very Short Introduction, Thomas Dixon traces the historical ancestries of feelings ranging from sorrow, melancholy, rage, and terror to cheerfulness, enthusiasm, sympathy, and love. The picture that emerges is a complex one, showing how the states we group together today as the emotions are the product of long and varied historTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements List of illustrations 1: The pulse of the past 2: A map of woe 3: From passions to emojis 4: Terror and the pursuit of happiness 5: All the rages 6: Looking for love References and further reading Index

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Book SynopsisLeadership is still much discussed, studied, and sought after, even though we now live in supposedly more democratic times with flatter organizations and empowered employees. But how can we best understand leadership? Are leaders born or made? Do they have particular traits or are we all potential leaders? Do the requirements for leadership change over time or are there timeless patterns? Do traditional approaches help us to pick and develop leaders or are there alternative ways that advance our understanding?In this book, Keith Grint - who has been studying and teaching leadership for over a decade - investigates the notion of leadership in a series of historical case studies and rich essay portraits of some of the most famous, and infamous, leaders (e.g. Florence Nightingale, Richard Branson, Horatio Nelson, Martin Luther King, Henry Ford, etc.). The scenarios are drawn from right across the spectrum to include business, politics, society, and the military. The first part of the bookTrade Review... this is a masterful book of its sort ... Grint makes his case consistently and persuasively ... This is an excellent book that deserves to be considered as one of the reference points in the contemporary literature on leadership. * Organization Studies *This book makes for thoroughly digestible reading. Management Theory with a difference. * Ben Maclennan, Leadership *Well written ... truly a voyage of remarkable insight into comparative success and failure situations in different contexts ... It is steeped in social and political history, which makes it unique and, for any managers who are students of history, a wonderful excursion. ... fascinating, illuminating and absorbing. * Cary Cooper, Times Higher Educational Supplement 31/01/2001 *An impressive collection of sixteen stimulating articles on a wide variety of issues on the whole subject of leadership ... One of the best collections of articles available on this critically important subject. * Long Range Planning *Table of ContentsPART I: PARALLEL LEADERSHIP SITUATIONS ; PART II: SITUATING EXTREME LEADERS

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Book SynopsisSocial Capital, the advantage created by location in social structure, is a critical element in business strategy. Who has it, how it works, and how to develop it have become key questions as markets, organizations, and careers become more and more dependent on informal, discretionary relationships. The formal organization deals with accountability; Everything else flows through the informal: advice, coordination, cooperation friendship, gossip, knowledge, trust. Informal relations have always been with us, they have always mattered. What is new is the range of activities in which they now matter, and the emerging clarity we have about how they create advantage for certain people at the expense of others. This is done by brokerage and closure. Ronald S. Burt builds upon his celebrated work in this area to explore the nature of brokerage and closure. Brokerage is the activity of people who live at the intersection of social worlds, who have a vision advantage of seeing and developing goTrade ReviewReview from previous edition Burt is among the best social network writers in articulating ideas from a research tradition that is notoriously difficult to put into words. Brokerage and Closure is the next step in research on social capital. * AMR, Management Rreview *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. The Social Capital of Structural Holes ; 2. Creativity and Learning ; 3. Closure, Trust, and Reputation ; 4. Closure, Echo, and Rigidity ; 5. Images of Equilibrium

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Book SynopsisThe Oxford Handbooks series is a major new initiative in academic publishing. Each volume offers an authoritative and up-to-date survey of original research in a particular subject area. Specially commissioned essays from leading figures in the discipline give critical examinations of the progress and direction of debates. Oxford Handbooks provide scholars and graduate students with compelling new perspectives upon a wide range of subjects in the humanities and social sciences. The Oxford Handbook of Practical Ethics is a lively and authoritative guide to current thought about ethical issues in all areas of human activity--personal, medical, sexual, social, political, judicial, and international, from the natural world to the world of business. Twenty-eight topics are covered in specially written surveys by leading figures in their fields: each gives an authoritative map of the ethical terrain, explaining how the debate has developed in recent years, engaging critically with the most nTable of Contents1. Sexuality ; 2. Love ; 3. Family ; 4. Children ; 5. Abortion ; 6. Reproductive Technology ; 7. Animals ; 8. Environment ; 9. Gender and Sexual Discrimination ; 10. Race and Racial Discrimination ; 11. Affirmative Action ; 12. People with Disabilities ; 13. Punishment ; 14. Freedom of Speech and Religion ; 15. Legal Paternalism ; 16. Multi-culturalism ; 17. Economic Justice ; 18. Inter-generational Justice ; 19. Privacy ; 20. Corporate Responsibility ; 21. Whistleblowing ; 22. Immigration ; 23. National Autonomy ; 24. International Economic Justice ; 25. World Hunger ; 26. Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide ; 27. Capital Punishment ; 28. War

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Book SynopsisThis book provides a detailed history of Hindu goddess traditions with a special focus on the local goddesses of Andhra Pradesh, past and present. The antiquity and the evolution of these goddess traditions are illustrated and documented with the help of archaeological reports, literary sources, inscriptions and art. Tracing the symbols and images of goddess into the brahmanical (Saiva and Vaisnava), Buddhist, and Jaina religious traditions, the book argues effectively how and with what motivations goddesses and their symbolizations were appropriated and transformed. The book also examines the evolution of popular Hindu goddesses such as Durga and Kali, discussing their tribal and agricultural backgrounds. It also deals extensively with how and in what circumstances women are deified and shows how these deified women cults share characteristics with the village goddesses.Trade ReviewA coherent and convincing thesis on goddess worship...Padma's methodological approach combining anthropology, archaeology, history, and mythology is refreshing and boldly successful...Her synthesis of pre-Vedic, Buddhist, Jaina, Vaisnava, and Saiva material into the framework of village goddess worship enriches her findings and makes her study unique...Her appraisals of on-the-ground religious practices past and present offer much to experts and non-experts interested in a new lens through which to approach Indic religions. * H-NET *In this monumental book, Sree Padma traces the history of village goddess traditions in Andhra Pradesh, India from prehistoric to contemporary times. She engages an impressive array of textual, material, and ethnographic sources to explore both continuities and transformations in goddess cults. This book will change how scholars think about South Asian goddesses. * Tracy Pintchman, Director of International Studies, Loyola University Chicago *Table of ContentsTable of Contents ; Acknowledgements ; Introduction ; 1. Goddess Explained - Perspectives From the West ; 2. Contextualizing the Fertility Goddess and the Gramadevata ; 3. Fertility Symbols of the Goddesses: ; Historical Renderings and Contemporary Practices ; 4. Profiles of Anthropomorphic Goddesses in Myth, Ritual, and History ; 5. Bala Perantalu: ; Auspicious Virgin Mothers ; 6. Perantalu: ; Auspicious Wives ; 7. Deifying Victimized Women: ; Sacrifices and Murders ; Conclusion ; Bibliography

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Book SynopsisPeter Trudgill looks at why human societies at different times and places produce different kinds of language. He considers how far social factors influence language structure and compares languages and dialects spoken across the globe, from Vietnam to Nigeria, Polynesia to Scandinavia, and from Canada to Amazonia. Modesty prevents Pennsylvanian Dutch Mennonites using the verb wotte (''want''); stratified society lies behind complicated Japanese honorifics; and a mountainous homeland suggests why speakers of Tibetan-Burmese Lahu have words for up there and down there. But culture and environment don''t explain why Amazonian Jarawara needs three past tenses, nor why Nigerian Igbo can make do with eight adjectives, nor why most languages spoken in high altitudes do not exhibit an array of spatial demonstratives. Nor do they account for some languages changing faster than others or why some get more complex while others get simpler. The author looks at these and many other puzzles, explorTrade Reviewthis thought-provoking work ... offers a fresh and compelling reason for linguists to focus on less commonly studied endangered languages. We therefore recommend this stimulating book to anyone interested in exploring possible connections between sociolinguistcs, language change, and typology. * James N. Stanford and Timothy J. Pulju, Studies in Language *An exciting book, multi-faceted and lucid, a book that can not only be recommended to researchers on linguistic change and historical sociolinguistics but also to advanced students in the field. * Juerg Schwyter, Neuphilologische Mitteilunge *a brisk and informative introduction to a way of thinking about language that has profound implications for analysis of language diachrony, acquisition, contact, and spread - and of course, given those areas, creolization. * Brian McWhorter, Revista de Crioulos de Base Lexical Portuguesa e Espanhola *This bold new book, by one of the fields leading sociolinguists, outlines the need for a new intellectual project at the heart of our discipline, emphasising the crucial role of the small face-to-face societies that have shaped most of human history in generating the outer reaches of linguistic complexity. * Nicholas Evans, Professor of Linguistics, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University *This focussed and important work shows that degree of contact, the size of the community of speakers, and coherence within that community are all important factors in the degree to which languages become structurally simpler (losing agreement and gender for example) or more complex. This is a must-read for anyone interested in language change. * Gary Miller, author of Language Change and Linguistic Theory *Table of ContentsPrologue: Social Correlates of Linguistic Structures ; 1. Sociolinguistic Typology and the Speed of Change ; 2. Complexification, Simplification, and Two Types of Contact ; 3. Isolation and Complexification ; 4. Mechanisms of Complexification ; 5. Contact and Isolation in Phonology ; 6. Mature Phenomena and Societies of Intimates ; Epilogue: On the Future of Linguistic Complexity ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisPeter Trudgill looks at why human societies at different times and places produce different kinds of language. He considers how far social factors influence language structure and compares languages and dialects spoken across the globe, from Vietnam to Nigeria, Polynesia to Scandinavia, and from Canada to Amazonia. Modesty prevents Pennsylvanian Dutch Mennonites using the verb wotte (''want''); stratified society lies behind complicated Japanese honorifics; and a mountainous homeland suggests why speakers of Tibetan-Burmese Lahu have words for up there and down there. But culture and environment don''t explain why Amazonian Jarawara needs three past tenses, nor why Nigerian Igbo can make do with eight adjectives, nor why most languages spoken in high altitudes do not exhibit an array of spatial demonstratives. Nor do they account for some languages changing faster than others or why some get more complex while others get simpler. The author looks at these and many other puzzles, explorTrade Reviewthis thought-provoking work ... offers a fresh and compelling reason for linguists to focus on less commonly studied endangered languages. We therefore recommend this stimulating book to anyone interested in exploring possible connections between sociolinguistcs, language change, and typology. * James N. Stanford and Timothy J. Pulju, Studies in Language *An exciting book, multi-faceted and lucid, a book that can not only be recommended to researchers on linguistic change and historical sociolinguistics but also to advanced students in the field. * Juerg Schwyter, Neuphilologische Mitteilunge *a brisk and informative introduction to a way of thinking about language that has profound implications for analysis of language diachrony, acquisition, contact, and spread - and of course, given those areas, creolization. * Brian McWhorter, Revista de Crioulos de Base Lexical Portuguesa e Espanhola *This bold new book, by one of the fields leading sociolinguists, outlines the need for a new intellectual project at the heart of our discipline, emphasising the crucial role of the small face-to-face societies that have shaped most of human history in generating the outer reaches of linguistic complexity. * Nicholas Evans, Professor of Linguistics, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University *This focussed and important work shows that degree of contact, the size of the community of speakers, and coherence within that community are all important factors in the degree to which languages become structurally simpler (losing agreement and gender for example) or more complex. This is a must-read for anyone interested in language change. * Gary Miller, author of Language Change and Linguistic Theory *Table of ContentsPrologue: Social Correlates of Linguistic Structures ; 1. Sociolinguistic Typology and the Speed of Change ; 2. Complexification, Simplification, and Two Types of Contact ; 3. Isolation and Complexification ; 4. Mechanisms of Complexification ; 5. Contact and Isolation in Phonology ; 6. Mature Phenomena and Societies of Intimates ; Epilogue: On the Future of Linguistic Complexity ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisCriminology is a broad-ranging and stimulating introduction that is ideal for undergraduates approaching the subject for the first time. Each chapter is written by an expert in their field and includes a range of learning features designed to help students engage with the material covered.Trade ReviewA first-rate resource with which to study and debate current issues within the subject. * Anna Markovska, Anglia Ruskin University, The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Vol 46 No 4, September 2007 *Given its scope and the inclusion of study questions, further reading and web links, lecturers will inevitably find this a useful core textbook. * Times Higher Education Supplement *The editors bring together an excellent group of contributions, making this a fascinating read. One of the real benefits is the scope of the material covered, which includes areas often neglected by criminology textbooks. * Times Higher Education Supplement *A very useful compilation of the subject of criminology for undergraduates and people studying criminology, particularly for the first time. * Dr. Lystra Hagley-Dickinson, British Journal of Criminology Newsletter 2006 *Table of ContentsPART I: INTRODUCING CRIME AND CRIMINOLOGY; PART II: FORMS OF CRIME; PART III: SOCIAL DIMENSIONS OF CRIME; PART IV: RESPONSES TO CRIME

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Book SynopsisOver the past 50 years, the federal government''s efforts to reform American public education have transformed U.S. schools from locally-run enterprises to complex systems in which federal, state and local actors jointly construct the educational environment of U.S. children. Through struggles over school integration, the growth of special education, the teaching of English learners and the rise of accountability politics, the federal role in U.S. education has meant a profound reconstruction of local expectations, roles and political alignments. Seeking to construct the federal schoolhouse - an educational system in which there are common national expectations and practices - has meant the creation of new modes of education within local institutions. The creation of this education state has also meant that federal educational initiatives have collided with - or reinforced - local political regimes in cities and suburbs alike. To the extent that all politics is local, the federal role in public schools has changed both the conduct and the norms of local educational politics. Building the Federal Schoolhouse examines how increasing federal authority over public education in the U.S. changes the practices of ''operational localism'' in education and how local regime commitments implement, thwart, or even block federal policy initiatives. The book examines these issues through an in-depth, fifty year examination of federal educational policies at work within one community, Alexandria, Virginia. The home of T.C. Williams High School, memorialized in the Hollywood movie Remember the Titans, Alexandria has been transformed within two generations from a Jim Crow school system to a new immigrant gateway school district with over 20 percent of its students English learners. Along the way, the school system has struggled to provide quality education for special needs students, sought to overcome the legacies of tracking and segregated learning and simultaneously retain upper-middle class students in this wealthy suburb of Washington, DC. Most recently, it has grappled with state and federally imposed accountability measures that seek to boost educational outcomes. All of these policy initiatives have contended with the existing political regime within Alexandria, at times forcing the local regime to a breaking point, and at times bolstering its reconstruction. At the same time, the local expectations and governing realities of administrators, parents, politicians and voters alike have sharply constrained federal initiatives, limiting their scope when in conflict with local commitments and amplifying them when they align. Through an extensive use of local archives, contemporary accounts, school data and interviews, Reed not only paints an intimate portrait of the conflicts that the creation of the federal schoolhouse has wrought in Alexandria, but also documents the successes of the federal commitment to greater educational opportunity. In so doing, he highlights the complexity of the American education state and the centrality of local regimes and local historical context to federal efforts to reform education.Trade ReviewMuch of what is written about education policy today is like the proverbial blind men and the elephant, touching pieces but missing how they fit together. In Building the Federal Schoolhouse, Douglas Reed pulls together the big picture of how multiple levels of government, and the politics within and across these levels, account for the policies and programs adopted and implemented today. * Jeffrey R. Henig, Professor of Political Science & Education, Teachers College, Columbia University *Table of ContentsPreface ; Chapter 1: The Local Politics of Federal Education Reform ; Part I: Race and Reform ; Chapter 2: Race and the End of a Regime ; Chapter 3: Racial Change, Conflict and the Incorporation of Interests ; Part II: The Local Politics of the Federal Commitment to Equality ; Chapter 4: The Politics of Exit ; Chapter 5: Special Education and the Politics of Services ; Chapter 6: From Arlandria to Chirilagua: English Learners and the Catch-22 Education State ; Part III: The Politics of Accountability ; Chapter 7: Local Activism and Accountability Politics ; Chapter 8: The Titans Meet the State: Federal Accountability and School Transformation ; Chapter 9: Conclusion: Learning from the Education State

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In The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure, Victor Turner examines rituals of the Ndembu in Zambia and develops his now-famous concept of Communitas. He characterizes it as an absolute inter-human relation beyond any form of structure.The Ritual Process has acquired the status of a small classic since these lectures were first published in 1969. Turner demonstrates how the analysis of ritual behavior and symbolism may be used as a key to understanding social structure and processes. He extends Van Gennep''s notion of the liminal phase of rites of passage to a more general level, and applies it to gain understanding of a wide range of social phenomena. Once thought to be the vestigial organs of social conservatism, rituals are now seen as arenas in which social change may emerge and be absorbed into social practice.As Roger Abrahams writes in his foreword to the revised edition: Turner argued from specific field data. His special eloquence resided in his abilit

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Book SynopsisIn this history of the Chicago School of Sociology, Andrew Abbott investigates central topics in the emergence of modern scholarship, paying special attention to "schools of science" and how such schools reproduce themselves over time.

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Book SynopsisA history of the meaning of property, this text aims to uncover in American legal writing a competing vision of property which has existed alongside the traditional conception. It argues that property has also been understood as propriety, a method for creating and maintaining an organized society.

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Book SynopsisThis edition marks the 25th anniversary of Elijah Anderson's classic study of street life among a gang of people congregating around a bar called Jelly's on Chicago's South Side.

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Book SynopsisArditi's study offers a history of mores from the High Middle Ages to the Enlightenment. Drawing on the ideas of Elias, Foucault and Bourdieu, as well as through analysing courtesy manuals and etiquette books of the times, he examines the relationship between power and social practices and traces how power changes over the centuries.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments 1: Manners, Social Relations, and Power 2: Centeredness, Social Coalescence, and the Hegemony of Ecclesias 3: Courtesy, Detachment, and the Transformations of the Relational Order 4: Civility and the Politics of Grace 5: Honnetete and the Consolidation of Royal Centrality 6: Paradoxes of the English Gentleman 7: Etiquette and the Constitution of Multicenteredness 8: Foundational Metamorphoses Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisArditi's study offers a history of mores from the High Middle Ages to the Enlightenment. Drawing on the ideas of Elias, Foucault and Bourdieu, as well as through analysing courtesy manuals and etiquette books of the times, he examines the relationship between power and social practices and traces how power changes over the centuries.

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Book SynopsisToo often we think of the modern political state as a universal institution, the inevitable product of History rather than a specific creation of a very particular history. Bertrand Badie and Pierre Birnbaum here persuasively argue that the origin of the state is a social fact, arising out of the peculiar sociohistorical context of Western Europe. Drawing on historical materials and bringing sociological insights to bear on a field long abandoned to jurists and political scientists, the authors lay the foundations for a strikingly original theory of the birth and subsequent diffusion of the state. The book opens with a review of the principal evolutionary theories concerning the origin of the institution proposed by such thinkers as Marx, Durkheim, and Weber. Rejecting these views, the authors set forward and defend their thesis that the state was an invention rather than a necessary consequence of any other process. Once invented, the state was disseminated outside its Western European birthplace either through imposition or imitation. The study concludes with concrete analyses of the differences in actual state institutions in France, Prussia, Great Britain, the United States, and Switzerland.

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Book SynopsisThis text presents an introduction to social studies of scientific knowledge. Using case studies from cognitive science, physics, and biology to illustrate descriptions and applications of the social study of science, the authors aim to provide a perspective on how science is actually done.

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Book SynopsisAddresses the question: Why should Africa be studied in the American university? Put to scholars in the social sciences and humanities, prominent Africanists who are also leaders in their various disciplines, their responses make a strong case for the research on Africa.

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Book SynopsisGathers a unique group of contributors from the worlds of sociology, musicology, literature, and communications - many of them practicing artists in their own right - to discuss how artists from jazz musicians to painters work: how they coordinate their efforts, how they think, how they start, and, of course, how they finish their productions.

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Book SynopsisA study of how investment in an individual's education and training is similar to business investments in equipment. This edition has four new chapters, covering topics including: human capital, fertility and economic growth, the division of labour and economic considerations within the family.

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Book SynopsisHow do people practice religion in their everyday lives? Courtney Bender spent more than a year working as a volunteer for a non-profit organisation called God's Love We Deliver, helping to prepare food for people with AIDs, this volume tells the story of that time.

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Book SynopsisIn this book, Reuven Brenner argues that people bet on new ideas and are more willing to take risks when they have been outdone by their fellows on local, national, or international scales. Such bets mean that people deviate from the beaten path and either gamble, commit crimes, or come up with new ideas in art, business, or politics, and ideas concerning war and peace in particular. By using evidence on gambling, crime, and creativity now and during the Industrial Revolution, by examining innovations in English and French inheritance laws and the emergence of welfare legislation, and by looking at what has happened before and after wars, Brenner reaches the conclusion that hope and fear, envy and vanity, sentiments provoked when being leapfrogged, make humans race.

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Book SynopsisFor too long, argues Richard Harvey Brown, social scientists have felt forced to choose between imitating science's empirical methodology and impersonating a romantic notion of art, the methods of which are seen as primarily a matter of intuition, interpretation, and opinion. Developing the idea of a cognitive aesthetic, Brown shows how both science and artas well as the human studies that stand between themdepend on metaphoric thinking as their logic of discovery and may be assessed in terms of such aesthetic criteria of adequacy as economy, elegance, originality, scope, congruence, and form. By recognizing this aesthetic common ground between science and art, Brown demonstrates that a fusion can be achieved within the human sciences of these two principal ideals of knowledgethe scientific or positivist one and the artistic or intuitive one. A path, then, is opened for creating a knowledge of ourselves and society which is at once objective and subjective, at once valid scientifically

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Book SynopsisThough the word sociology was coined in Europe, the field of sociology grew most dramatically in America. Despite that disproportionate influence, American sociology has never been the subject of an extended historical examination. To remedy that situationand to celebrate the centennial of the American Sociological AssociationCraig Calhoun assembled a team of leading sociologists to produce Sociology in America. Rather than a story of great sociologists or departments, Sociology in America is a true history of an often disparate fieldand a deeply considered look at the ways sociology developed intellectually and institutionally. It explores the growth of American sociology as it addressed changes and challenges throughout the twentieth century, covering topics ranging from the discipline's intellectual roots to understandings (and misunderstandings) of race and gender to the impact of the Depression and the 1960s. Sociology in America will stand as the definitive treatment of the con

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Book SynopsisWith the publication in 1937 of his first book, The Structure of Social Action, Talcott Parsons (1902-79) established himself as one of America's most important social theorists. Yet Parsons's essays from the decade preceding 1937 are virtually unknown to theorists and historians of sociology. By gathering the majority of Parsons's articles and book reviews published between 1923 and 1937, Charles Camic supplies the first comprehensive selection of the writings of the early Parsons. In his superb introductory essay, Camic situates Parsons's early writings in their sociointellectual and biographical context. Drawing upon extensive historical research, he identifies three overlapping but relatively distinct thematic phases in the early development of Paron's ideas: that on capitalist society and its origins, that one the historical development of the theory of action, and that on the foundations of analytical sociology. Camic correlates the emergence of these phases to Parsons's experien

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Book SynopsisPutting a human face on globalization, Threads shows not only how international trade affects local communities but also how workers can organize in this new environment to more effectively demand better treatment from their distant corporate employers.

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Book SynopsisThe rise in life expectancies and retirement rates in the 20th century has had dramatic impacts. This survey of Union Army veterans born between 1820 and 1850 examines the factors that affected health and labour force participation in 19th century America.

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