Sociology

An expansive and fascinating field, sociology explores how human society develops and functions. Titles in this collection range from cultural studies classics like Orientalism by Edward Said and Gender Trouble by Judith Butler to recent Pulitzer Prize winner Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond.

Publication year 1993

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Colonialism, Power & Greed, Literature

Tags Colonialism & Postcolonialism, World History, Philosophy, Politics & Government, European History, Middle Eastern History, Asian History, Literary Criticism, Sociology, Philosophy, Arts & Culture

Culture and Imperialism is a nonfiction book published in 1993 by the Palestinian American author and academic Edward Said. Originating from a series of lectures that Said delivered in 1985 and 1986, Culture and Imperialism is an expansion of the ideas set out in his groundbreaking earlier work, Orientalism (1978). Considered one of the founders of the field of post-colonial studies, Said looks at how the formerly colonized margins influence the metropolitan centers, and vice... Read Culture and Imperialism Summary

Publication year 2013

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Tags Psychology, Science & Nature, Business & Economics, Sociology, World History, Psychology, Self-Improvement

Malcolm Gladwell’s 2013 book David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants is an investigation of the relationship—often distorted, in Gladwell’s view—between underdogs and giants. Taken from the Biblical account of David and Goliath, underdogs are cast as those battling (and overcoming) seemingly overwhelming odds, and giants are their adversaries. David and Goliath was a bestseller, but some critics and scholars found Gladwell’s conclusions unsatisfying and the stories he draws from unsubstantiated... Read David And Goliath Summary

Publication year 1992

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Mothers

Tags Education, Education, Anthropology, Anthropology, Grief & Death, Social Science, Sociology, World History, Politics & Government

Published in 1989, Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil, is an in-depth and long-ranging look at the crisis of infant and early-child mortality in the rural communities of the Brazilian Northeast. The author of the book is Nancy Scheper-Hughes, a former aidworker who returned to Brazil as an anthropologist. While the object of this book is infant and child mortality, its main focus is not a medical or scientific approach to... Read Death Without Weeping Summary

Publication year 2011

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Economics, Conflict, Community

Tags World History, Business & Economics, Finance, Anthropology, Sociology, Anthropology, Philosophy, Philosophy, Politics & Government

Publication year 2010

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Gender Identity

Tags Sociology, Gender & Feminism, Women`s Studies, Science & Nature, Psychology, Psychology, LGBTQ+

Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference, also known as Delusions of Gender: The Real Science Behind Sex Differences, is a 2010 work of feminist nonfiction by British psychologist and philosopher Dr. Cordelia Fine. Through an intensive but accessible review of neurological and sociological studies, the book debunks the idea that men and women have different brains. Nominated for numerous awards upon its publication, it went on to become a bestseller... Read Delusions of Gender Summary

Publication year 1835

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Tags US History, Politics & Government, French Literature, American Literature, Sociology, World History, Philosophy, Philosophy, Classic Fiction

Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America is a work of history and political philosophy published in two volumes, the first in 1835 and the second in 1840. Tocqueville embarked on his own political career in France but is best known for his contributions to history and political philosophy.The first volume is based on Tocqueville’s nearly yearlong sojourn in the United States, ostensibly to study its prisons and prison reform. In his introduction Tocqueville emphasizes that... Read Democracy in America Summary

Publication year 1975

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Power & Greed, Politics & Government, Social Class

Tags Philosophy, Incarceration, World History, Sociology, Psychology, French Literature, Education, Education, Psychology, Philosophy, Classic Fiction, Politics & Government

Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison by Michel Foucault is a socio-political study of how power manifests in the Western penal system throughout history. Considered to be Foucault’s masterpiece, Discipline and Punish traces the history of how punishment and control were applied in Western society and how penal systems evolved to match changes in social sensibilities. Michel Foucault was a French historical philosopher and literary critic in the 20th century. Foucault’s work has... Read Discipline And Punish Summary

Publication year 1955

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Colonialism

Tags Philosophy, Afro-Caribbean Literature, Colonialism & Postcolonialism, Race & Racism, Philosophy, Sociology, World History, Politics & Government

Discourse on Colonialism is an essay written originally in French by Aimé Césaire and published in 1950. This seminal work by Césaire opens with a thesis that Europe currently suffers from two problems. The first problem is the state of the proletariat and colonialism and the second is its moral hypocrisy. Throughout the essay, Césaire elaborates on this thesis by identifying the proletariat as the colonized laborer and the bourgeois as the European academic, scholar... Read Discourse on Colonialism Summary

Publication year 1755

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Politics & Government, Social Class, Science & Technology

Tags Philosophy, Politics & Government, Sociology, Age of Enlightenment, Education, Education, World History, French Literature, Philosophy, Classic Fiction

“Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men,” often known as the “Discourse on Inequality” or the “Second Discourse,” is an essay by the Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau published in 1765. This summary is based on The First and Second Discourses, edited and translated by Roger D. Masters and Judith R. Masters, and published by St. Martin’s Press in 1964.SummaryRousseau wrote the essay in response to a prize announced by the Academy of... Read Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Summary

Publication year 1832

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Gender Identity, Race, Place, Politics & Government

Tags British Literature, American Literature, Sociology, World History, Classic Fiction, Travel Literature, Satirical Literature, US History

Frances (Fanny) Trollope, today best known as the mother of the popular Victorian author Anthony Trollope, was herself an extraordinarily productive writer in many genres. Her literary career began in middle age when, out of financial desperation, she wrote a travelog describing her impressions of America, gathered on a three-year excursion there. Published in 1832 in two volumes, Domestic Manners of the Americans was a runaway bestseller and a wildly controversial takedown of what Trollope... Read Domestic Manners of the Americans Summary

Publication year 2018

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Power & Greed, Economics, Politics & Government, Race

Tags US History, Politics & Government, Science & Nature, Health, Crime & Law, Sociology, World History

Publication year 2023

Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction

Tags Gender & Feminism, Sociology, World History, Psychology, Psychology, Philosophy, Philosophy, Politics & Government, Biography

Publication year 2015

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Tags Politics & Government, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Science & Nature, Sociology, World History, Health

Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic (Bloomsburg Press, 2015) is a nonfiction book by American journalist and writer Sam Quinones. It won the NBCC Award for General Nonfiction and was on Amazon’s list of best books of the year in 2015 as well as Slate’s list of the 50 best books of the past 25 years. In the book Quinones charts the parallel rise of prescription opiates and black tar heroin, and describes... Read Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic Summary

Publication year 2009

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Fame, Community

Tags Sociology, Education, Education, American Literature, World History, Psychology, Psychology, Philosophy, Philosophy, Arts & Culture, Politics & Government

Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle is a non-fiction book written by Chris Hedges, published in 2009. This work of cultural criticism focuses on the effects of mass media and popular culture on American society, politics, and economics. Since its publication, Empire of Illusion has been marketed as a work which predicted the forces that ultimately gave rise to the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Author Chris Hedges... Read Empire Of Illusion Summary