Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach

by James M. Henslin

Down-to-Earth Approach James Henslin shares the excitement of sociology, with his acclaimed "down-to-earth" approach and personal writing style that highlight the sociology of everyday life and its relevance to students' lives. With wit, personal reflection, and illuminating examples, he shares with readers his passion for sociology. In addition to this trademark down-to-earth approach, other distinctive features Comparative perspectives. Two important themes are global comparisons - the diversity of social life across cultures and societies - and comparisons over time - what society used to be like, and how it has changed. The Globalization of Capitalism. Many examples highlight the ways in which our global economy influences the skills and knowledge we need, the work we do, and the cost of goods and services. Visual Presentations of Sociology. Outstanding maps, graphs, and photos grab students' interest and aid comprehension.

Genres: Sociology, School, Nonfiction, Reference, Textbooks, Social Science, Social

679 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1993

Reviews

[Trevor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve been reading quite a bit of sociology lately and so I thought it might be a good idea to read a general textbook to get an overview of the subject itself. This was interesting, though very American, obviously. And that had both benefits and disadvantages. Much of the sociology I’ve been reading has been European – so it was interesting to see a US perspective on the subject. All the same, this is such a general introduction that besides the occasional statistic there wasn’t all that much that I felt I learnt from it.

The best chapter is five – where he explains various sociological research methods and the limitations and difficulties of each. The best part of this chapter is the summary at the end, perhaps as good a summary of these methods in a few pages as I’ve found to date.

The chapter I found least useful was the chapter on religion. I guess it is important to remember that the US is an extremely religious nation and quite unusual as such for an advanced industrial society. I think this might have coloured a lot of this section and made the conclusions much more rosy than might have been the case if written in another country. I had no idea that quite such a large percentage of people went to church in America every week. All the same, I would have liked to have had more discussion on European countries which are far less religious and yet do not seem to have fallen into despair. There are many things stated here that I believe might well be true, for example, that religious people tend to be happier than non-religious ones, although, to be honest I’ve never checked the data on this and it could be a kind of survey effect. There are also things stated that are clearly false, such as that prayer has been proven to be efficacious in curing illnesses. It always seems a little pointless to me to have people tell me that overall religious people are happier than non-religious people. Where is this overall happy religious person? And what am I to do with this information? Start believing in God? I can assure you that being forced to pretend to believe would make me anything but happy. Besides which, it would be hard to imagine that the African Americans who were told to take out shonky loans by pastors of their local church who proved to be on commission from sub-prime lenders, because Jesus wanted them to be home owners are all that happy now.

This book is organised according to themes: religion, the economy, class, gender and so on. While this is as good a way to organise such a book as any, I think I would have gotten more out of a more in depth look at sociologists themselves and their theories. This is done for Weber’s views on capitalism and Protestantism – something the author finds interesting enough to explain to his readers three times. It is also done with Marx and his alienation theory of labour (described at least twice) and there is also some mention of Durkheim on suicide and Morgan on social development – but I think I would have preferred much more of this.

It seems somewhat surprising to me that one could write an entire book on sociology and never mention Bourdieu, Foucault or any of the post-structuralists. Oh well, I guess the book is ‘down to earth’.

[Kathy Schwegman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this as a prerequisite for my nursing degree. I had taken Sociology long ago and didn’t do so well in it so I decided to give it another try. The author of this textbook did a very good job putting this together. I really actually enjoyed this class.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Sociology is a subject I wish to study in the future and this was a great and appetizing introduction.

[Michele Reise · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know if textbooks are more opinionated now than they were when I was young or that I am just mature enough now to notice it. Either way, this textbook really pushed the author's personal opinion on numerous topics such as marriage, religion and the environment. I guess I view my textbooks like I view my news...it should just state known facts without any other input. Hope the rest of my sociology texts are much better.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent textbook for an introduction to sociology class. James Henslin is well-traveled and includes many of his own photos from his journeys around the world.

[Eliana · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a textbook and subject that claims to be about the sociological perspective--the intersection of culture, history, personal biography, social location--the author was rather lacking in doing so for non-"Western" concepts or social movements he didn't agree with, and displayed both significant bias (the ableism in regards to whether neurodivergent people actually existed was fun) and an appalling lack of socioeconomic knowledge (my favorite example of this was his constant use of communism and socialism as interchangeable concepts). 2/5 stars, its primary usefulness is teaching basic sociological vocabulary; the sex/gender unit alone could use some major updates.

Edit: the top two novels that "readers also enjoyed" both being by Ben Shapiro speaks volumes both to Henslin's target audience and the level of factuality/cultural diversity that they enjoy.

[Jane Francis · Rating 1 out of 5]

The examples are lackluster and don't give much depth to the concepts, there isn't much correlation between chapters and the information that is covered seems a bit watered down compared to the contents of other sociology books I've seen and read. The author also had a haughty and condescending tone which made his already unbearable book nearly intolerable. Definitely supplement with other books if this is the solo required resource for a class.

[Franklin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a good introductory textbook. Henslin uses interesting stories to illustrate sociological concepts in a way that encourages critical thinking. The book does adhere to a slightly older view of sociology. Henslin admits that the ecological crisis facing humanity is maybe the most threatening problem we are facing, yet despite this gives environmental sociology about 1/3 of the final chapter. Overall though this is a great way to get familiar with sociology from its roots to the present day.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want a book that will give you the bare bones of sociology, this is the book. Learn about values, mores, norms. Groups, stratification, and globalism. It is a terrific book with real-world examples about how we see one another and how each of us impacts the lives of everyone we interact with.

[Linda Hayashi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Personal anecdotes flesh out basic and complex ideas. Sociological imagination or perspective gained with hard work and practice. This textbook led me to Charles Wright Mills.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting, and we'll written. I read this for a sociology college course and enjoyed reading it.

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never took Sociology in College, enjoyed this immensely
actually the Audiobook

[Angelina · Rating 3 out of 5]

read for school soc 101

[Rubi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had some interesting insight. I learned a lot and was surprised to find topics that actually applied to my life and interested me. I never thought sociology would be something that interested me. It also left me questioning our society. I've always known we were screwed up, but if people KNOW this and study it, I don't understand why no one is doing anything to change it. I also question some of sociologist's methods of study. I mean, how do you justify kicking someone to hospitalization and paticipating in a shoot out? If you know it's going to go down, why let it happen? To study it? That's just wrong. But other than that, it was a good read. People should read it to get a dose of reality, especially when it comes to judgeing the poor. What it said in that regard and in the prison system is very true.

[411Junkie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent read for anyone who is interested in Sociology. Henslin does an good job writing in layman's terms. I used this book for reading assignments for the semester, but I wouldn't have mind reading it on its own as well. It's easy to read, easy to understand, and yet, very thorough.

[Jerome · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great introduction to societal issues!

[Kevin Warman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very decent introductory text for sociology. It managed to keep me entertained while sharing a lot of valuable information.

[Peggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad for text book

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this entire textbook for a sociology class. Very good information source for social problems research.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great overview of sociological issues. Thorough and a fantastic resource with minimal -- however present -- personal slant/commentary. Worth reading and referencing.

[Jonathan]

None

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant.

[Lauralex Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thorough and complete but dry if this is not your passion.