Discover Sociology - Softcover

“What I like about this book is the engaging writing style and clear integration of meaningful and lively examples throughout. . . The integration of detailed examples would give students a lot to discuss in class and offers a clear map of how to apply the ideas in the text to the real and complex social worlds that contemporary students inhabit. The overall length is not overwhelming and should permit instructors to cover most chapters.”

“Discover Sociology invites students to do just that in a way that connects academic concepts with students’ real world experiences. Introductory sociology students often have basic questions about society that other textbooks fail to recognize, but the material in Discover Sociology addresses these issues in an easy to understand manner. One of this text’s strongest features is that it encourages students to think critically about the social world.”

“I really like the easy-to-read writing, the current examples, the commitment to helping the reader think sociologically, and the extensive examples.” 

“. . . I like the idea of “thinking sociologically” . . . the idea that sociology is not merely common sense is illustrated well in this book and is one of its principal strengths, and something that sets it aside from other introductory texts.”

“I loved the writing and comprehensive information on each topic. The essays are interesting and relate to current events . . . [T]he global and feminist themes are very important. Most texts don’t use them in the way the authors did (interlocking factors).”

Sociology is a discipline of curious minds. What key social forces construct and transform our lives as individuals and as members of society? How does our social world shape us? How do we shape our world?

Join Bill Chambliss and Daina S. Eglitis as they journey beyond the classroom to help students answer these questions with their groundbreaking new text, Discover Sociology. Chambliss and Eglitis inspire curiosity about the social world and empower students by providing the theoretical, conceptual, and empirical tools they need to understand, analyze, and even change the world in which they live. Every chapter in the book integrates robust pedagogical features and empirical research that illuminate the social roots of diverse phenomena and institutions, ranging from poverty and deviance to capitalism and the nuclear family. From exploring whether the use of “study drugs” should be considered cheating to an examination of research showing a correlation between rising student debt and declining rates of marriage, the book’s chapter openers engage students in real-life applications of sociology. Going beyond theory and concepts, the authors also help answer the question, “What can I do with a sociology degree?”