Full Description
Unlike most introductory texts that take a topical approach to studying sociology, this smart, challenging, and accessibly written text looks at the core principles of the discipline, making links to a contemporary context.
The second edition of this award-winning book has been substantially revised, making more direct connections between Generation Z, Mills's concept of the sociological imagination, and the challenges students face in higher education today. The section on popular culture contains a new chapter on the history of popular music from early rock 'n' roll to contemporary pop and R&B. New chapter objectives, end-of-chapter review and reflection questions, key terms, and glossary, as well as an instructor's manual, make this text much more useful in the classroom.
Contents
Preface
Introduction
Part One: Why Think Sociologically?
1. Visions and Profiles of Students Today
2. Generation Z and the Promise of Sociology
3. The Light of Reason: Higher Education's Challenges
Part Two: The Classical Tradition
4. Marx and the Dialectic of Dynamic, Unstable Social Formations
5. Marx, the Communist Manifesto, and Modernity
6. From Descartes to Durkheim: Toward a Science of Society
7. Durkheim and the Systematic Study of Social Facts
8. Weber and the Interpretive Understanding of Social Action
9. The Spirit of Capitalism, Modernity, and the Postmodern World
Part Three: Sociology and Contemporary Popular Culture
10. Culture and Critique
11. The Dialectics of Popular Culture
12. Rock 'n' Roll as Complex Culture
13. The Promise of Sociology
Glossary of Key Terms and Names
Bibliography
Index
