Customer Reviews

Society: The Basics (10th Edition)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I have to use this book to teach Sociology 101, and it frustrates me to no end. The book is a failure in every aspect.

Introductory textbooks have to simplify things, of course, but Macionis oversimplifies to the point where my students feel that their intelligence has been insulted, and worst of all, don't realize that the sociological concepts he's talking about are more than simple stereotypes and platitudes. He writes at one point, essentially, that "white people don't understand poverty", while every college freshmen knows that poor whites do exist, and that the author must be either a racist or an idiot for thinking otherwise. But what does the cultural construct of race have to do with social hierarchy and economics? Macionis doesn't start that conversation, you'll have to do it yourself.

And that's the general flaw of the book, Macionis writes chapter after chapter of superficial lists of concepts, theorists, and vocabulary, but never does the real work of laying out key sociological theories in a simple and thorough way, which of course is exactly what a textbook is for. As a teacher, I'm then forced to spend class time laying out the basics that Macionis didn't cover, everything from culture to symbolic interactionism. He'll give a few paragraphs to Weber, Marx, or Freud, but doesn't actually explain them in any coherent way.

Some things are completely absent. Macionis doesn't mention some key concepts, like social capital, and doesn't explain at all how sociologists use statistics. With glaring omissions like those, it's obvious that Macionis simply doesn't understand sociology.

Finally, the book just isn't organized in any worthwhile way. Macionis puts the three big "approaches" (StrucFunc, Conflict, Interaction) in the first chapter, before the students have been exposed to enough material to understand why they're useful or important. Then the rest of the book is a laundry list of concepts, clumped into chapters without any real theme. For example, chapter 4 is about social interaction, status, role, emotion, and humor, but gender, class, race, social groups, and social stratification are spread out in other chapters. Sure, the students learn their vocabulary, but it becomes very difficult to connect the different concepts to each other.

Macionis offers snippets of narrative to help explain the concepts, but nothing big enough for actual analysis, so you'll have to do it instead. All in all, this book does nothing that it's supposed to do, and should not be bought by anyone.

Please take my review with a grain of salt, as sociology is not an interesting subject for me, you may enjoy this text book thoroughly, but I did not.

I approached sociology 100 with an open mind, the class relied pretty heavily on the textbook (I read it cover to cover). When I began reading I thought I was in for an exciting study of society. Unfortunately, after I read the first chapter I began to notice a trend: everything centered around a hard-left tilt, everything seemed to be repeating. The book is very left slanted and uses any means possible to get the reader to believe that Karl Marx is the greatest sociologist to ever live and that the white man is essentially the evil man. And again each chapter read like it was on repeat, constantly revisiting the same examples, black people are oppressed by the white man, the white man is rich, the white man oppresses the women, if you're a woman and you're black it's twice as bad. The white man makes you poor etc. I just paraphrased the entire text for you, so do yourself a favor and avoid this class/text book if you can.

I don't have a problem with socialism, nor do I believe society is perfect, but this book is going to try and convince you that everything in the US is absolutely terrible and that Karl Marx and feminism are the answer.

Good sociology book. Used this instead of the new edition. Its basically the same thing word for word. There are only a few differences. Page numbers and very few words are different.

I now understand the symbolism of the man wearing his glasses on the cover. The glasses themselves represent the knowledge of the information you WILL learn after reading each chapter. And the reflection on the glasses represents your wisdom of the "sociological imagination." In other words, your ability to see your personal position in a societal context. My professor has continuously told us that for EACH chapter in the book there is an actual course that we can take to find out more about them. To put it simple: If you feel as if you've lived in a vacuum your entire life, enroll in a "Intro to Sociology" (making sure that it has this textbook before) and be prepared to be BLOWN AWAY! (in a positive and good way)

This is a really good bargain. Good quality of the book(almost as a brand new one), which the same time has a fair price.

i was fairly stressed out that the book i ordered took a week to show up, even though i had paid extra for the 2 day shipping. the reason i specifically chose this sender is because they indicated they live in ohio (as do i) and i needed the book asap. im not sure what the problem was but i was unhappy that i had paid the extra money for what seemed to be regular post instead of expedited. i hope you guys will do better in the future.

I purchased this product because my professor said it wasnt essential for us to buy the new version, and I decided to go on amazon because I knew certain things were cheaper and this book was. I saved so much money compared to renting one at school and I loved the condition it came in, and that certain things were already highlighted for me.

I can not recommend this book in the least. The author is insulting the intelligence of the reader through oversimplification of material. Not only this, but he writes his opinions frequently throughout the book with absolutely no backing whatsoever. For example, on page 4: "Rap lyrics by groups such as Three 6 Mafia, who say that they 'done seen people killed, done seen people deal, done seen people live in poverty with no meals,' show that some people of color- especially African Americans living in the inner city- feel like their hopes and dreams are crushed by society. But white people, as the dominant majority, think less often about race and the privileges it provides, believing that race affects only people of color and not themselves as well."

That quote, as well as many others in the book, are completely insulting. He, along with this statement, talks more about extreme poverty with African Americans and wealth and freedom with whites, which anyone who has ever been a part of an American society knows that is not the case. Living in the Black Belt, I see an equal number of whites and blacks in poverty. I also do not see any trace of "limited social choices" for people of color like the writer states. I am taken aback that a publisher would even let un-backed pretentious crap such as what Mr. Macionis is saying to even be placed on the printer. Do not buy.

Book is laid out nicely and is easy to read and reference. Would be nice if it had more examples for the different theories.

An easy read of a complex subject. If you are looking for a good book on sociology with an expansive international coverage then this is it. Mr. Macionis is a master in his own sense. He has made me more rounded even with my law background. I highly recommened this material.