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 2023

Genre Biography, Nonfiction

Themes Power & Greed, Conflict, Nostalgia, Future, The Past, Family, Social Class, Loyalty & Betrayal, Truth & Lies

Tags European History, Politics & Government, Sociology, British Literature, Modern Classic Fiction, World History, Biography

Publication year 2018

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Economics, Social Class, Education, Globalization, Nation, Politics & Government, Nostalgia, Equality, Justice, Science & Technology, Religion & Spirituality, Truth & Lies, Community

Tags Philosophy, Science & Nature, Psychology, Sociology, Politics & Government, Health, Agriculture, Business & Economics, Social Class, Climate Change, Social Justice, World History, Psychology, Philosophy

Publication year 1941

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Community

Tags Psychology, Sociology, World History, Psychology, Philosophy, Philosophy, Classic Fiction, Politics & Government

Escape From Freedom is a book of social psychology written by Erich Fromm in 1941. A German-Jewish psychoanalyst, Fromm had been a member of Frankfurt’s influential Institute for Social Research before fleeing the Nazis and relocating to the United States. In Escape From Freedom, Fromm uses ideas from both psychology and sociology to explain humanity’s ambivalent relation to freedom, with a particular attention paid to the rise of Nazism in Germany. The first two chapters of... Read Escape From Freedom Summary

Publication year 2016

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Family, Community

Tags Sociology, Social Justice, Poverty, Race & Racism, Business & Economics, World History, Politics & Government

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, written by Matthew Desmond, a tenured sociology professor at Princeton University, was published in 2016 and won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 2017. In this influential work, Desmond highlights the interconnected issues of extreme poverty and affordable housing in the United States, themes he continues to explore in his more recent book, Poverty, by America. Through an ethnographic study, he follows the experiences of eight... Read Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City Summary

Publication year 2014

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Community

Tags Sociology, Education, Education, World History, Parenting, Psychology, Psychology, Philosophy, Philosophy, Politics & Government

William Deresiewicz’s 2014 nonfiction book Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life examines elite education in America in the 21st century and finds it sorely lacking. By “elite education,” Deresiewicz is referring to the Ivy League schools and a handful of top-tier universities just below the Ivy League. Having spent over two decades in the Ivies as both a student and professor, Deresiewicz speaks from his own... Read Excellent Sheep Summary

Publication year 2013

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Economics, Social Class, Immigration, Nation, Politics & Government

Tags Immigration & Refugeeism, Politics & Government, Business & Economics, Sociology

Publication year 2018

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Globalization, Trust & Doubt

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

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World—And Why Things Are Better Than You Think, written by Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling, and Anna Rosling Rönnlund, was published by Flatiron Books in 2018. This book examines how people across cultures view the world through a negative lens, which leads them to believe conditions everywhere are declining. Doctor and global health expert Hans Rosling offers research and anecdotes from his medical experience and his lectures to unpack... Read Factfulness Summary

Publication year 2001

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Food, Economics, Power & Greed, Science & Technology

Tags Food, Sociology, Education, Education, Science & Nature, Arts & Culture, World History, Health, Agriculture, Business & Economics, Journalism, Politics & Government, Social Justice

IntroductionFast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal is a 2001 nonfiction book by Eric Schlosser that investigates the business practices of the American fast food industry and the associated agricultural industries that supply it. Following the precedent of Upton Sinclair’s famous 1906 work The Jungle, Schlosser provides readers with a glimpse into the questionable ethics of these large food corporations. Schlosser likewise provides brief historical accounts of fast food’s origins and traces... Read Fast Food Nation Summary

Publication year 2000

Genre Essay Collection, Nonfiction

Themes Gender Identity

Tags Gender & Feminism, Women`s Studies, Sociology, Philosophy, Philosophy, Social Justice, Politics & Government

Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics by critic, academic, and writer bell hooks is described by the author as a primer, a handbook, even “a dream come true” (ix). In the Introduction to the book, hooks describes her labor of love in writing this brief guide to feminism, and she employs a concise style that does not waver from her goal of educating readers about the fundamentals of feminism. This book is the product of... Read Feminism Is For Everybody Summary

Publication year 2012

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Community

Tags Sociology, Education, Education, Social Justice, Poverty, Politics & Government

Fire in the Ashes is writer Jonathan Kozol’s account of spending twenty-five years chronicling the lives of poor children in New York City. He begins with an account of the Martinique, a decrepit homeless shelter in midtown Manhattan that was closed in the late 1980s. It housed thousands of homeless people, mainly women and children, in criminally-decrepit conditions and a state of lawlessness that forever marked the children who lived there.In subsequent chapters, Kozol explains... Read Fire in the Ashes Summary

Publication year 1995

Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction

Tags Trauma & Abuse, Education, Education, Sociology, Social Justice, Politics & Government, Biography

Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun: A Personal History of Violence is the 1995 memoir by Geoffrey Canada that details his coming-of-age in the South Bronx. It follows Canada from the age of four to young manhood and describes the different and increasingly lethal forms that violence takes in his life.The memoir begins with Canada living with his three older brothers and his newly-single mother. His father has recently left the family, and his mother is trying... Read Fist Stick Knife Gun Summary

Publication year 2005

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Science & Technology, Social Class, Economics

Tags Business & Economics, Sociology, Science & Nature, Social Science, Psychology, Psychology, Politics & Government

Rarely does a book about economics attract a large audience, but Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything sold 4 million copies after its 2005 debut. The book, by University of Chicago professor Steven Levitt and journalist Stephen Dubner, explains how incentives—the reasons why people do things—can cause unusual and unexpected effects in many areas of life.Praised and reviled for its outside-the-box approach—the work was condemned for suggesting that liberalized abortion laws... Read Freakonomics Summary

Publication year 2013

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Immigration, Food, Social Class, Community, Globalization, Economics, Education, Politics & Government, Nation, Shame & Pride, Conflict, Justice, Safety & Danger, Power & Greed, Truth & Lies

Tags Anthropology, Social Justice, Sociology, Health, Education, Education, Anthropology, Food, Politics & Government

Publication year 1990

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Teamwork, Community, Friendship, Fathers

Tags Sports, Creative Nonfiction, Race & Racism, Sociology, Journalism, World History, Biography

Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream is a 1990 nonfiction book by H. G. Bissinger that explores the American phenomenon of high school football in the small Texan town of Odessa. Friday Night Lights is a New York Times bestseller and inspired a television show and film of the same name. Bissinger, who left his job as a journalist and editor to write the book, moved his family to Odessa for... Read Friday Night Lights Summary

Publication year 2016

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Perseverance, Hope, Hate & Anger, Race, Social Class, Colonialism, Politics & Government, Community, Economics, Education, Nation, Equality, Justice, Power & Greed, Truth & Lies, Trust & Doubt

Tags Black Lives Matter, Race & Racism, Social Justice, Civil Rights & Jim Crow South, US History, Business & Economics, Diversity, Social Class, Education, Finance, Poverty, Politics & Government, Trauma & Abuse, Sociology, World History