Social Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective

Rating:
Summary: A Very Important Sociology Text
Review: I am currently enrolled in a class taught by Prof. Grusky entitled "Social Stratification" at Cornell University.

The man is very much like the reader; his interests are inspired out of the thinking academic not the impassioned activist. The reader itself is a compellation of primary sources which range from Marx to Shills to Aage Sorensen, to contemporary critiques. True, the text is dense at times, but it dutifully presents sociology in the best distilled, raw light. As Grusky writes in his course outline: " As we all know, issues of inequality are every day fare in conventional journalism (e.g newspaper, television), but such fare often rests on a naive understanding of stratification systems. The object of this course is to rise above such standard formulations and examine the powerful models, methods, and concepts that serious scholars of inequality have deployed."

Rating:
Summary: The most comprehensive and scholarly treatment to date.
Review: Rare indeed is an anthology that introduces the reader to cutting edge research in a field. This one does, and with much flair to boot. For readers with the necessary tenacity, there is no better introduction to one of the core fields of sociology. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A college-level treatise on social issues
Review: Social Stratification In Sociological Perspective is a college-level treatise on social issues affecting class, race and gender appears in its second edition to discuss the evolving field of stratification. College students will find a survey of stratification research, with articles in different sections examining the field and its broader issues and controversies. This comprehensive reader may well serve as a classroom text on the topic for sociology courses.