The Sociology Book
Big Ideas Simply Explained
DK Publications
The Sociology Book takes on some of humankind's biggest questions: What is society? What makes it tick? Why do we interact in the way that we do with our friends, coworkers, and rivals?
The Sociology Book profiles the world's most renowned sociologists and more than 100 of their biggest ideas, including issues of equality, diversity, identity, and human rights; the effects of globalization; the role of institutions; and the rise of urban living in modern society
Easy to navigate and chock-full of key concepts, profiles of major sociological thinkers, and conversation starters galore, this is a must-have, in-a-nutshell guide to some of the most fascinating questions on earth.
The Sociology Book is part of the award-winning Big Ideas Simply Explained series, designed to distil big ideas and elusive theories into graspable, memorable concepts, using an approachable graphic treatment and creative typography.
DK is known for their beautifully laid out, highly graphic, yet extremely informative texts for all ages. With The Sociology Book, we have a book in an award-winning series (including religions, economics, politics, business, psychology, etc.) that makes a complex and difficult subject not only accessible but easy to understand. The book doesn't pander, lightly touch upon, or gloss over the subject; rather, the subject is broken down by sociologists through the ages and their viewpoints are explained. As such, this is an ideal book for teens and adults to really understand the topic of sociology today, suitable for reading parts or the topic as a whole.
The book breaks down as follows: Introduction, Foundations of Sociology, Social Inequalities, Modern Living, Living in a Global World, Culture and Identity, Work and Consumerism, The Role of Institutions, Families and Intimacies, Directory, Glossary, Index. Within these sections, topics include: Science can be used to build a better world (August Comte), Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft (Ferdinand Tommies), The poor are excluded from the ordinary living patterns, customs, and activities of life (Peter Townsend), The freedom to remake our cities and ourselves (Henri Lefebvre), The modern world system (Immanuel Wallenstein), Culture is ordinary (Raymond Williams), The puritan wanted to work in a calling; we are forced to do so (Max Weber), The iron law of oligarchy (Robert Michels), Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature (Karl Marx), The time of the tribes (Michael Mafesoli).
As an example, a section entitled "Science Can Be Used To Build a Better World" by August Comte (1798-1857) will have a graphic image, a call-out box with the focus of the statements and key dates, a bio of Comte, another callouts with related topics in the book and the pages on which they are found, a discussion of the theory, key works by the author, flow charts of how the theory evolved, quotes, graphical explanations of the theory, and art related to the era in which the topic was written. There are over 85 such sections in this book.
As can be seen above, this goes far beyond boring textbook with some random images. Readers can glance over topics to get an idea if they want to investigate further and get a sound feel for what is being presented within minutes - and then a thorough understanding for only a few minutes more invested in the words and graphics. As such, this is a great book both for those who learn from seeing the larger idea and then building upon the details and also those who like to start with small details and then build a larger picture.
The series is honestly phenomenal - all the books make very hard topics very easy to digest, understand, and explore. Very highly recommended as either a reference or great informative reading. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.
