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Thursday, October 14, 2010

Sociology: The Essentials by

Review

"Sociology: The Essentials is extremely well written and the explanations are quite clear. It is eye-catching and interesting. The additional materials presented in each chapter are very thought provoking and excellent learning devices for students to deal with individually or for the instructor to use as class exercises or homework assignments. Using diversity is certainly appealing and current. The lucid approach to the theoretical perspectives in each chapter is terrific and much appreciated."

"The text is well written. The concepts are explained in a clear concise way and the examples are relevant, interesting and such that they would/should attract the interest of our students."

"This text has a lively, relaxed style that does not ignore substance, which is probably the greatest asset of the book. Other texts, especially other essentials books, are so fluffy that they don’t cover enough raw information." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Sociology: The Essentials

This mainstream book is characterized by its superior scholarship, accessible writing style, unmatched coverage of diversity, and unparalleled, integrated technology resources. Treating diversity as central to the rich fabric of our society, the authors include research and data that illustrate how class, race-ethnicity, gender, age, geographic residence, and sexual orientation relate to the topics covered. Speaking to students in a friendly and inviting way, the authors encourage them to think globally, question commonly held beliefs, assess different perspectives used by sociologists, and to use this process to understand the forces that generate change and continuity in our society.

About the Author:Margaret L. Andersen

Margaret L. Andersen--raised in Oakland, California; Rome, Georgia; and Boston--is Edward F. and Elizabeth Goodman Rosenberg Professor of Sociology at the University of Delaware. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and her B.A. from Georgia State University. She is the author of THINKING ABOUT WOMEN: SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON SEX AND GENDER (Allyn and Bacon) and the best-selling Wadsworth text RACE, CLASS, AND GENDER: AN ANTHOLOGY (with Patricia Hill Collins). She is also the author of ON LAND AND ON SEA: A CENTURY OF WOMEN IN THE ROSENFELD COLLECTION and LIVING ART: THE LIFE OF PAUL R. JONES, AFRICAN AMERICAN ART COLLECTOR. She has recently served as Vice President of the American Sociological Association, from which she has also received the prestigious Jessie Bernard Award. She has also been awarded the SWS Feminist Lecturer Award, given annually by SWS (Sociologists for Women in Society) to a social scientist whose work has contributed to improving the status of women in society. She currently serves as Chair of the National Advisory Board of the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity at Stanford University. She has served as the Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Science and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at the University of Delaware, where she has also won the University?s Excellence in Teaching Award. She lives on the Elk River in Maryland with her husband, Richard Rosenfeld.
Howard F. Taylor was raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Hiram College and has a Ph.D. in sociology from Yale University. He has taught at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Syracuse University, and Princeton University, where he is presently Professor of Sociology and former director of the African American Studies Center. He has published over fifty articles in sociology, education, social psychology, and race relations. His books include THE IQ GAME (Rutgers University Press), a critique of hereditarian accounts of intelligence; BALANCE IN SMALL GROUPS (Van Nostrand Reinhold), translated into Japanese; and the forthcoming RACE AND CLASS AND THE BELL CURVE IN AMERICA. He has appeared widely before college, radio, and TV audiences, including ABC?s NIGHTLINE. He is past president of the Eastern Sociological Society, and a member of the American Sociological Association and the Sociological Research Association, an honorary society for distinguished research. He is a winner of the DuBois-Johnson-Frazier Award, given by the American Sociological Association for distinguished research in race and ethnic relations, and the President?s Award for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton University. He lives in Pennington, New Jersey, with his wife, a corporate lawyer.