Introduction to Sociology

Rating:
Summary: up to date and accessible
Review: I have used this book along a more traditional sociology text book, Gellles and Levine 6th Edition, and this book has taken more and more of lecture time. I like the fact that it pust sociology into a global perspective, though I do think some of the examples are geared toward traditional, middle class university students, and not the working class, non traditional students I work with at a community college. However, compared to the G/L book this text is much shorter and conscise. A great introductory text book for sociology, with personal examples to think critically and sociologically about globalization. I also like its inclusion of feminist theory and general gender issues through out the book, not just in the gender chapter. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Critical view on today's sociology - where are we headed ?
Review: The book [2nd Edition] is very easy to read and understand. A must for students of other fields who want to have a peep into sociology without spending too much time. This book discusses the major question of modern sociology. Not only does it give the reader fast insight into some major matters of sociology, but it also saves the reader many hours of unnecessary reading for an introduction to the subject.

Rating:
Summary: A text book I will keep forever
Review: This book makes me love sociology, and understand it. I love the down to earth examples from real life situations, such as people working in health clubs and people on the streets and the way this gets used to introduce the meat and potatoes of sociology.

Rating:
Summary: Not good enough for college
Review: This book may give you the "meat and potatoes" of sociology but unfortunetly it doesn't give you more than that. If your goal is to put some of your curiosity into perspective this is propably the book. But if you want to understand the field of sociology as an academic discipline this suffers from not focusing on theories but on themes. It will spark the "sociological imagination" but I will not read the book again and again.

This book may be helpful in high school but for college and up you need to supplement (or replace) it with one which focus on theories and theorists like "Classical & Modern Social Theory" by Heine Andersen and Lars Bo Kaspersen which is the best introduction to theorists from Marx to Giddens IMO. THIS is the book that will follow me always.

Rating:
Summary: Not good enough for college
Review: This book may give you the "meat and potatoes" of sociology but unfortunetly it doesn't give you more than that. If your goal is to put some of your curiosity into perspective this is propably the book. But if you want to understand the field of sociology as an academic discipline this suffers from not focusing on theories but on themes. It will spark the "sociological imagination" but I will not read the book again and again.

This book may be helpful in high school but for college and up you need to supplement (or replace) it with one which focus on theories and theorists like "Classical & Modern Social Theory" by Heine Andersen and Lars Bo Kaspersen which is the best introduction to theorists from Marx to Giddens IMO. THIS is the book that will follow me always.

Rating:
Summary: Squeezing all the information into one brick.
Review: This [2nd Edition] is about as thick a book as some bibles are, but as bibles come also on pocket sizes, so should this book! It gives great previews on different aspects of everyday life, but doesn't offer anything new. This is like a referendum into sociology's different sides in whole. I wonder if the edition 3 will be as much "copy and paste" from edition 2 as this edition is from the first edition...