Customer Reviews

The Meaning of Difference: American Constructions of Race, Sex and Gender, Social Class, and Sexual Orientation

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is absolutely fabulous. I had the honor of taking Prof. Rosenblum's class, which is great to use the book that she helped compose. I think this book is great in a scholastic setting, alone it might seem scattered and incongruent. With the class there comes discussions and lectures, also there were associated readings from the internet that helped focus students as well. The most important parts of the book are the framework essays, because they really explain a prominent sociological perspective that this book uses, the social constructionist paradigm. I hope that people can read this book and take away the important aspects from it, but not think that this book is particularly suited for coffee shop reading. It is a textbook meant for a classroom with heavy interaction from the teacher and students.

While the text offers important thought provoking articles and essays on Race Gender and Social Issues, it is not Student friendly text. A text with such a wide array of information should offer a section of review at the end of each reading. By having a review "for students", it ensures an understanding of concepts and objectives. Furthermore, it offers students a place to review when studying for exams. I give the text a 5 star rating for the informative articles and essays but 1 star for none existing review material.

We so often long to hear other people's perspectives. The problems are that we don't meet such people, we don't listen/hear if we are told the information, or we just have difficulty getting beyond our own cultural lens. This book gives many of the "other" perspective(s). I found the social class information particularly interesting. It's something to digest and not whiz through. I can't say enough about the wisdom in this book.. if you'll give yourself the chance to listen..

This book is great for anyone who is interested in questions like why do we as Americans' see white people and black people differently. It answers questions like this for gender, race, ethnicity and disability. The first chapter is terribly dry but it sets the stage for the rest of the book which is very insightful.
(There's a bit of good history in here as well).

Book is in great shape, showed up very quickly, which made me very happy that I had a chance to review it.

very interesting book. really makes you look at how people treat each other and how we cope with our differences.

school bookstore listed this book at $65. Got it here for $10. Very small water damage maybe 20 pages in the corner...great buy.

This book starts with an absolutely unreasonable, poorly written, and perverted essay that tries to undermine the basic framework of our society, the family. The author, Ms. Rosenblum, does not believe in any absolutes and holds to the belief that all suffering and wrong-doing is caused by societal influences. In between all of the perverted conclusions she does provide encouragement to accept people for who they are, not as a thing, but as a person, but I was unable to even follow her reasoning as to why one should do this.

Overall I would not recommend this book to anyone. I feel sorry for you if you are assigned this book as require reading or as a textbook for your class my sympathies are extended out to you!

This is a very smart text and my students usually like it. It is, as one reviewer pointed out, a challenging read for some students. I like the emphasis on social construction, which is not often sufficiently discussed in courses on diversity and minority relations. It is very important to spend time early on making sure that students understand the concept of social construction and why it is important. If that is not clear, a student will not get as much out of the book.

I like the way they divide the readings the way they did. It makes it easy and less boring to read