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Heads Up
Heads Up Sociology
Gain an insight into the issues that matter today, such as who owns the media, who decides what is news, and the super-rich.
Sociology is the study of how societies are organised and what helps them function or go wrong. Why do people commit crimes? Who decides if someone has a mental illness? What's work for? Does aid do any good? Heads Up Sociology explores these fascinating questions plus all the key sociology topics, including poverty, gender, class, and crime.
Biographies give you insights into the lives and work of key players such as Judith Butler and Howard Becker, and case studies and real-life scenarios bring the ideas to life.
Sociology is the study of how societies are organised and what helps them function or go wrong. Why do people commit crimes? Who decides if someone has a mental illness? What's work for? Does aid do any good? Heads Up Sociology explores these fascinating questions plus all the key sociology topics, including poverty, gender, class, and crime.
Biographies give you insights into the lives and work of key players such as Judith Butler and Howard Becker, and case studies and real-life scenarios bring the ideas to life.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 2017
About the author
D.K. Publishing
10.3k books2,224 followersDorling Kindersley (DK) is a British multinational publishing company specializing in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 62 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a consumer publishing company jointly owned by Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and Pearson PLC. Bertelsmann owns 53% of the company and Pearson owns 47%.
Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including Eyewitness Travel Guides), arts and crafts, business, history, cooking, gaming, gardening, health and fitness, natural history, parenting, science and reference. They also publish books for children, toddlers and babies, covering such topics as history, the human body, animals and activities, as well as licensed properties such as LEGO, Disney and DeLiSo, licensor of the toy Sophie la Girafe. DK has offices in New York, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto and Melbourne.
Source: Wikipedia.
Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including Eyewitness Travel Guides), arts and crafts, business, history, cooking, gaming, gardening, health and fitness, natural history, parenting, science and reference. They also publish books for children, toddlers and babies, covering such topics as history, the human body, animals and activities, as well as licensed properties such as LEGO, Disney and DeLiSo, licensor of the toy Sophie la Girafe. DK has offices in New York, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto and Melbourne.
Source: Wikipedia.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
January 9, 2024
4.5
Un libro muy interesante para todos los que tengan interés aprender más sobre la sociología y no saben por dónde comenzar. Eso sí, me hubiera gustado más diversidad en los teóricos mencionados, la gran mayoría eran hombres blancos y europeos. Dejando ese detalle a un lado, me llevé mucho conocimiento y encontré temas que me llamaron la atención, y continuaré buscando más información sobre estos.
Un libro muy interesante para todos los que tengan interés aprender más sobre la sociología y no saben por dónde comenzar. Eso sí, me hubiera gustado más diversidad en los teóricos mencionados, la gran mayoría eran hombres blancos y europeos. Dejando ese detalle a un lado, me llevé mucho conocimiento y encontré temas que me llamaron la atención, y continuaré buscando más información sobre estos.
July 22, 2024
Not bad this was actually pretty interesting
May 4, 2018
I found this book very interesting, it asked a lot of important questions and I learned more about the people and the world we live in. Some parts were a bit confusing but other parts gave me a new perspective on the world around us. But I would not read this again.
February 3, 2020
Buena introducción a la sociología. Si bien es un libro más para jóvenes/adolescentes, sigue siendo bastante informativo y provoca que te pique la curiosidad para que sigas ampliando tus conocimientos por otras vías en aquellos temas que más te interese.
September 2, 2026
Have you ever wondered why people act the way they do or why everyone acts in different ways? The book “Heads Up Sociology” published by DK written by Dr. Chris Yuill and Dr. Christopher Thorpe on January 16, 2018 is an introductory to sociology that explains how people, groups and society are connected to each others. In the book, the author talks about many parts of the society including family, human culture, religion, social groups and other factors that affect a person’s behavior. Instead of telling a boring story, the book gives information and examples applying them to real life to help readers understand why the people behave in certain ways and how society can affect their choices. After reading the book, I think the book is a very good introduction to sociology for people that want to learn about sociology and didn’t know much about it because it teaches important ideas in a simple and interesting way for readers to better understand.
I think the best part or the strongest part about the book is that it is really interesting and easy to understand. Instead of boring essays it actually breaks them into sections, pictures, charts, and real life examples to explain the idea applying to real life and that the ideas could normally be difficult. For example, when the author explained the society about classes, they wrote a page about Karl Marx, they explained his opinions and ideas like the two distinct classes Karl Marx stated which are the working class and the ruling class. Additionally, another example is when they brought accountable researches to back up their claim when explaining the part about class had disappeared in the modern society therefore they brought out “The Death of Class” by Jan Pakulski and Briton Malcolm Waters and explained their work that nowadays as the status gap between people’s classes are getting smaller, the society classes are starting to disappear. However, I think some of the topics were explained too fast. One example is that for some of the captions of a topic were very short like when explaining managing waste and working for change of “What’s our impact on the Planet” each category was explained very short with only a few sentences which is not very detailed. This could be a problem for people who already know things about sociology and want to learn more.
After all, I think this book is a very helpful and interesting source for beginners who want to learn about our society or how an individual's behavior affects the group. This book tells that sociology is not only about studying society, it is also about understanding why people, groups and communities are acting the way they do. The book introduces many topics and discusses each topic clearly and gives examples applying them to real life situations such as in family, school, and relationships between people and different groups. I would recommend this book to high school students or anyone that is a beginner and is interested or wants to learn about the basic idea of sociology without reading too much and too difficult. I would give this book four out of five stars because it is very easy to understand with useful information using examples, details, sections and pictures.
I think the best part or the strongest part about the book is that it is really interesting and easy to understand. Instead of boring essays it actually breaks them into sections, pictures, charts, and real life examples to explain the idea applying to real life and that the ideas could normally be difficult. For example, when the author explained the society about classes, they wrote a page about Karl Marx, they explained his opinions and ideas like the two distinct classes Karl Marx stated which are the working class and the ruling class. Additionally, another example is when they brought accountable researches to back up their claim when explaining the part about class had disappeared in the modern society therefore they brought out “The Death of Class” by Jan Pakulski and Briton Malcolm Waters and explained their work that nowadays as the status gap between people’s classes are getting smaller, the society classes are starting to disappear. However, I think some of the topics were explained too fast. One example is that for some of the captions of a topic were very short like when explaining managing waste and working for change of “What’s our impact on the Planet” each category was explained very short with only a few sentences which is not very detailed. This could be a problem for people who already know things about sociology and want to learn more.
After all, I think this book is a very helpful and interesting source for beginners who want to learn about our society or how an individual's behavior affects the group. This book tells that sociology is not only about studying society, it is also about understanding why people, groups and communities are acting the way they do. The book introduces many topics and discusses each topic clearly and gives examples applying them to real life situations such as in family, school, and relationships between people and different groups. I would recommend this book to high school students or anyone that is a beginner and is interested or wants to learn about the basic idea of sociology without reading too much and too difficult. I would give this book four out of five stars because it is very easy to understand with useful information using examples, details, sections and pictures.
July 5, 2022
I'm not sure why I picked this book up. Maybe it was the cover. It is short, easy to follow and is well structured. It works as a wonderful introduction to sociology and the graphics make it very appealing and just as informative as your regular textbook.
I would have appreciated this a lot more as a teenager. As a 30-something who spent an entire semester at university on sociology deciphering the works of Durkheim, Weber and Marx, I still consider this a really good introductory read that covers a lot of ground without going into too much detail. However there are some inaccuracies about Asian cultures in here for which I have taken a star off.
While this is a reference book clearly targeted at a younger crowd, I can think of many adults who will greatly benefit from learning about the social constructs of class, gender and society throughout history. Because sometimes I hear offhand comments of how certain ethnic groups are the reasons behind societal problems, and it takes all of me to not quote the Strain Theory or tell them off in an aggrieved manner. In fact there are many politicians' heads that I want to throw this book at.
I would have appreciated this a lot more as a teenager. As a 30-something who spent an entire semester at university on sociology deciphering the works of Durkheim, Weber and Marx, I still consider this a really good introductory read that covers a lot of ground without going into too much detail. However there are some inaccuracies about Asian cultures in here for which I have taken a star off.
While this is a reference book clearly targeted at a younger crowd, I can think of many adults who will greatly benefit from learning about the social constructs of class, gender and society throughout history. Because sometimes I hear offhand comments of how certain ethnic groups are the reasons behind societal problems, and it takes all of me to not quote the Strain Theory or tell them off in an aggrieved manner. In fact there are many politicians' heads that I want to throw this book at.
January 5, 2022
This book is too left. It is not a bad thing but the title of the book is not correct. Sociology should be a knowledge about the whole picture, not just from one side.
It is acceptable untill I read a sentence of this
"Singaporean sociologist Angelique Chan notes that in Malay cultures where religious wisdom is prized, older people enjoy a reasonable social status. However, in countries like China that prize people who are earning money, being older is not so valued."
I pretty sure the author has not do many real research on the whole Asian culture. Korean, Japan, China, even Singapore, they share very similar core culture. It is not easy to understand and it takes lots of work to dig down deep enough to understand the subtle difference.
Science is real, love is true and this book is not very serious.
It is acceptable untill I read a sentence of this
"Singaporean sociologist Angelique Chan notes that in Malay cultures where religious wisdom is prized, older people enjoy a reasonable social status. However, in countries like China that prize people who are earning money, being older is not so valued."
I pretty sure the author has not do many real research on the whole Asian culture. Korean, Japan, China, even Singapore, they share very similar core culture. It is not easy to understand and it takes lots of work to dig down deep enough to understand the subtle difference.
Science is real, love is true and this book is not very serious.
March 29, 2021
A useful roadmap of sociological thought, Heads Up Sociology massively simplifies with minimal distortion.
Perhaps the most surprising lesson for me is quite how many of the thinkers I find fascinating can be described sociologists. From Marx and his followers to Chomsky, Wallerstein, Foucault and many more, I now have a greater understanding as to how their work fits into the discipline. What's more, the inclusion and fair treatment of figures like these who are usually considered too radical for mass market introductions is commendable.
Perhaps the most surprising lesson for me is quite how many of the thinkers I find fascinating can be described sociologists. From Marx and his followers to Chomsky, Wallerstein, Foucault and many more, I now have a greater understanding as to how their work fits into the discipline. What's more, the inclusion and fair treatment of figures like these who are usually considered too radical for mass market introductions is commendable.
November 14, 2018
Good survey/overview for someone wanting to know what sociology is
November 22, 2019
مقدمة جميلة لعلم الاجتماع ولقد اشتمل على مواضيع عديدة ومتنوعة . مسلي واعجبني كثيرا
March 16, 2020
Good content for higher sociology
July 27, 2020
Un libro que permite entender de una forma gráfica los fenómenos q se presentan en la sociedad, recomendado para estudiantes de las ciencias sociales e investigadores.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 16, 2021
A great book to know more about sociology. This is definitely not my first book I read about sociology but it’s very interesting reads!
March 1, 2021
A good introduction to sociology to appeal to young adults.
July 13, 2021
Excelente libro de sociología para entender nuestra vida, cultura y desarrollo.
April 4, 2022
Short but nice intro to sociology.
October 13, 2022
Muy visual. Sirve como guía de inicio para profundizar con otros textos.
November 23, 2022
I’m sure it’s quite interesting, but I’m not that interested.
January 9, 2023
This short book gave good information but I did already know a lot of it. It was just interesting to listen to while I did random chores
October 31, 2019
For the ones who need an overview on Western sociology, a bit of history, some basic rules and lessons on world economics, this is a useful reference. The book reads like a library reference for certain general topics such as communities, gender relations, societal structures, and who are the main proponents of particular thoughts in sociology. One can read through it quickly as well, as it includes images that are quite enjoyable to look at from a high school students' perspective. If one prepares to enter into a similar program or is interested to delve into this area, this is a good read.
December 1, 2020
Absolutely love all the contents here. More than just a 'sociology book', this book discussed various contemporary issues related to sociology.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews