Customer Reviews

Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach (10th Edition)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I needed this book for a sociology course and I think it is fantastic! The author has done an amazing job to help readers easily relate to the subject and keep it interesting by describing his own experiences & other people's experiences around the world. The definitions are even in boldface & described on the page so that you don't have to keep flipping back to the glossary. The book is informative, yet delightful as the author shows you how to use your sociological imagination & how to open your mind. I'd recommend this book to any person interested in sociology because of how clear & enjoyable it is to read. I've never had so much fun reading a textbook!

I got this book just in time. I dont have any complains. I got it in an excellent condition. I will buy more books in the future with this seller.

So i placed my order for this book and they took the money of my card. and an hour later my order was canceled, and they still haven't returned my money.

Thank you so much for shipping the book quickly. The book is in great condition, obviously it's not brand new but other than a few pen marks it looks great! Thank you very much, would buy from you again :)

I've never come across a textbook in which the author repeatedly referred to themselves. This man constantly mentions things like, "When I stayed at the homeless shelter" or "The time I was in Morocco, my height was an advantage". I now know he is 6' plus, blond haired and blue eyed. Maybe I'm wrong, but a textbook should be neutral. They aren't supposed to be the author's opinions (that's what a thesis would be for). He also seems to look down on other cultures and certain areas of our own society. He refers to an instance of a girl who was kept tied up for the first several years of her life as a pathetic story, and then again refers to frightened baby monkeys used in tests as "pathetically clinging to the terrycloth mother". What I believe is pathetic is that someone can look at these situations and refer to them in that way. Those stories are not pathetic, they're sad and horrible. I'm really surprised that this textbook is used so much. The author is very clearly infusing his own beliefs and values (or lack thereof) into this textbook.

The one good thing about this book is that he uses good examples to explain some of the terms.

Edit: Another problem I've run across is the table of contents leaves out major subjects in the text. The glossary does the same. Makes it extrememly difficult to go back and find one point.

This is honestly the worst textbook I have ever seen. The author uses it not to present the consensuses of the scientific community but rather to air his own personal opinions, and the language and examples are so awkwardly colloquial that it makes one cringe to read it.

At one point, the author spends an entire page railing against the entire field of sociobiology, "disproving" the entire discipline by erroneously pointing out that biology can predict a pig's behavior because a pig doesn't have a cerebral cortex and by claiming that, because a particular gene which has been proposed as a "gay gene" is absent in some homosexuals, it clearly has absolutely no effect on sexual orientation and the cause of orientation must be 100% sociological. He continues remarks against sociobiological views throughout the text, despite citing several studies which demonstrate genetic components to human behavior (such as ones conducted on twins separated at birth). This is just one of several ways that Henslin demonstrates that he was really not setting out to write a textbook -- he was looking to state his unsubstantiated opinions as fact, and to present them to introductory students who might not know any better than to accept them.

This book is great so far, i just got the book and it shipped when it said it was coming. The mysoclab is great, you can practice on lots of things for the chapters. Its worth the money.

I had the misfortune of being assigned this text for my Introductory Sociology course at AMU. If you believe that people are not responsible for their actions, that society is the perpetrator of all ills and the subjugator of women and minorities, that modern convenience is destroying the world, and that the government should fix all of these things regardless of the cost, this is the perfect textbook for you. If you think all of these things are nonsense, steer clear if you can. If you can't (as was the case for me), be warned and ready for a very irritating semester.

Buy this book if you are interested in reading a text written by an opinionated, mysogynistic,judgemental, narrow minded, probally fundamentalist christian, white guy, who is incapable of keeping his own prejudices and judgements and those of HIS groups of choice out of the text! If you want to read boring generalities and a privileged white males view and opinions of ,history and the world, and if you are a woman who subscribes to ideas of being kept barefoot,pregnant, submissive and subservient. This book is not worth the paper it was printed on and definately not worth wasting time reading it.

I had to get this book for class. It is a pretty good book. Its easy to read and understand. It helps you understand sociology and gives views that I otherwise may not have thought of.