Human Societies

by Patrick Nolan, Gerhard Lenski

The tenth edition of Human Societies is more substantially revised and updated than any single new edition of this classic text in the last twenty years. Readers will find the basic theoretical framework of Human Societies unchanged, but the application of this framework has been expended to analyze many of today’s current issues and developments. These changes and new developments • Complete rewrite of the chapter on less developed societies in today’s world, including extensive discussions of the impact of economic and political globalization on these societies. • New analysis of the outsourcing of jobs from industrial societies to some of the less developed countries. • More on the increased immigration from these less developed societies to the industrial societies of Europe and North America. • Coverage of new and militant forms of religious fundamentalism, especially in Muslim societies, although not in them alone—and the economic and political impact of fundamentalism worldwide. • New materials added on a variety of subjects ranging from the highly restrictive role of women in agrarian societies of the past to the impact of technology in promoting the growing generation gap in modern societies. • New discussion of the implications of China’s growing economic power. • An updated critique of free-market capitalism. • A new boxed insert discussing "The Myth of Primitive Environmentalism." • New material on the impact of the Internet and other new technologies. • Statistical data have been updated throughout the text.

Genres: Sociology, Nonfiction

415 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2003

Reviews

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the textbook for my undergraduate introductory sociology class.
For a textbook, it's pretty readable, and it is formatted more like a regular non-fiction book than a textbook. If one was looking to do independent study on sociology, I think this textbook would be a nice candidate for reading outside a class.
However, the later chapters are kinda Islamophobic and there's a weird paragraph that argues that climate change isn't caused by humans, and that left a bitter taste in my mouth.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my majors is Sociology, so I was hoping that this book would be fascinating. It wasn't. Though the subject matter was interesting enough, the book came off a little drab and unexciting, and has made me rethink my choice to double-major in Sociology. I did enjoy some aspects of the book, and found it to be interesting and knowledgeable in several aspects, but I the emotion I ended up feeling the most while reading this book was "bored". Unfortunately. I would like to see if I could read this outside of a school setting - I think I would possibly find this more interesting. I did like this book, and I still love and am fascinated by the subject, but it was still a little difficult to get through.