Sociology (11th edition) by Richard T. Schaefer

Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
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Product Description

In the eleventh edition of Sociology, Rick Schaefer continues to provide a comprehensive, up-to-date introduction to sociology that appeals to students with a diversity of learning styles. This contemporary text focuses on sociology in the global community and encourages students to think about the world they're living in using a sociological imagination. With the strongest coverage of race and ethnicity, examples of sociology's real world applications, and in-depth coverage of currently relevant topics like mass media and social policy, Schaefer's Sociology is the perfect text for today's students.

Customer Reviews

Awesome!!!

Review Date: January 6, 2009

Reviewer: Caitlin Christenson, Denver, CO, USA

This book was exactly what I was looking for and in excellent condition. I would definitely recommend this supplier.

great

Review Date: February 9, 2009

Reviewer: Galina Tkachev,

Great condition. I ordered a used book but I recieved almost a brand new one. It looks fresh. And it came fast too.

Very pleased.

Review Date: March 9, 2009

Reviewer: Shawn S. Hardiman, Mount Vernon, MO

I was very pleased with my book. I received it faster than I thought I would. I am a college student and I only use amazon.com to purchase text books or other supplies needed for my classes.

sociology text review

Review Date: July 6, 2009

Reviewer: Erika Riojas, Texas

excellent condition and super-relieved to not have to pay $150 for this at the bookstore!

Rather Dull Book

Review Date: December 6, 2009

Reviewer: J. Bodah,

First off I'd like to agree with all the other individuals that made a comment about how Amazon is a great place to shop. I've had a lot of positive stories with them.

That being said, I don't feel like this book was very good. I'm not a Sociology major by any means, but I felt that too much of the book was spent saying the same thing over and over again. For example, in most chapters there would be a point where the author would break down the subject at hand into the three major perspectives: functionalist, conflict, and interactionist. In almost every chapter the author repeats himself that the interactionist perspective cares about how the subject affects our daily lives. Now, this is essentially what the interactionist perspective is all about, but I don't see the need to be reminded of that with two paragraphs every chapter. I don't feel like the author really makes good use of the reader's time, and feel like this book could be tightened up a little bit and get the reader straight to the good stuff. Among the I really enjoyed about the book were the examples; the author brought the theories to life quite well a number of times, but you need to surf through a sea of trivial text to find them.

Another thing I would like to note about this book is the fact that a lot of it is written with an opinion and lacks scientific neutrality. Some of the statistics are questionable in regards to validity and reliability. One thing the author fail to recognize is the fact that statistics are extremely skewed if you have an uneven or biased sample group (as is typically the case with surveys), and will follow a normal distribution in variance, meaning that it is normal for the results this year to fluctuate with the results next year. This fact makes me weary of examples where the author compares a small number of sample statistics, say unemployment rates.

All in all, this book has too much fluff and not enough peanut butter (if you catch my drift).