Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life 12th Edition

Book Preface

It was the first day of the fall semester several years ago. I had just finished making the final adjustments to an earlier edition of this book, which was due to be published the following January. I felt pretty good about myself, like I’d just accomplished something monumental. Let’s face it; being able to call yourself an author is pretty cool. Even my two sons were impressed with me (although not as impressed as the time we went to a professional hockey game and I leaped out of my seat to catch an errant, speeding puck barehanded). I walked confidently into the first meeting of my Introduction to Sociology class eager to start teaching wide-eyed, first-year students a thing or two about sociology.
In my opening comments to the class that day, I mentioned that I had just written this book. The panicked look in students’ eyes—a curious combination of awe and fear—calmed when I told them I wouldn’t be requiring them to read it that semester. I told them that the process of writing an introductory text helped me immensely in preparing for the course and that I looked forward to passing on to them the knowledge I had accumulated.
The next day after class, one of the students—a bright-eyed, freshly scrubbed 18-year-old—approached me. The ensuing conversation would leave a humbling impression that lasts to this day:
Student: Hi. Umm. Professor Newman . . . I called my parents last night to, like, tell them how my first day in college went. I think they were, like, more nervous than I was. You know how parents can be.
Me: Yes, I sure do. I’m a parent myself, you know.
Student: Yeah, whatever. Anyway, I was telling them about my classes and my professors and stuff. I told them about this class and how I thought it would be pretty cool. I told them you had written a book. I thought that would impress them, you know, make it seem like they were getting their money’s worth and everything.
Me: Well, thanks.
Student: So, they go, “What’s the book about?” [He laughs sheepishly.] I told them I really didn’t know, but I’d find out. So, like, that’s what I’m doing . . . finding out.
Me: Well, I’m glad you asked. You see, it’s an introductory sociology textbook that uses everyday experiences and phenomena as a way of understanding important sociological theories and ideas. In it I’ve attempted to . . .
Student: [His eyes, which were already glazed over with boredom, suddenly jumped back to life.] Wait, did you say it was a textbook?
Me: Why, yes. You see the purpose of the book is to provide the reader with a thorough and useful introduction to the sociological perspective. I want to convey . . .
Student: [Quite embarrassed now] Oh . . . Professor Newman, I’m really sorry. I misunderstood you. I thought you had written a real book.
Real book. Real book. Real book. Those words rang in my head like some relentless church bell. At first, I tried to dismiss this comment as the remark of a naïve kid who didn’t know any better. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized what his comment reflected. The perception that textbooks aren’t real books is widespread.
A couple of years ago, I heard a radio ad for a local Red Cross book drive. The narrator asked listeners to donate any unused or unwanted books as long as they weren’t textbooks. Yep, that’s what he said. A torn copy of The Cat in the Hat? Fine, they’ll take it. A grease-stained owner’s manual for a Ford Fusion? Sure, glad to have it. A 2003 guidebook on how to use Myspace? What a lovely addition to the collection. Textbooks? No way!
Sadly, these sorts of perceptions are not altogether undeserved. Textbooks hover on the margins of the literary world, somewhere between respectable, intellectual monographs on trailblazing research and trashy romance novels. Traditionally, they’ve been less than titillating: thick, heavy, expensive, and easily discarded for a measly five bucks at the end-of-semester “book buy-back.”
My goal—from the first edition of this book to the current one—has always been to write a textbook that reads like a real book. In the previous 11 editions, I tried to capture simultaneously the essence and insight of my discipline and the reader’s interest. From what reviewers, instructors, and students who’ve read and used the book over the years have said, I think I’ve been fairly successful. While no Hollywood movie studio has expressed interest in turning this book into a movie (yet!), people do seem to like the relaxed tone and appreciate the consistent theme that ties all the chapters together. Many instructors have commented on how the book enables students to truly understand the unique and useful elements of a sociological perspective. Take that, Red Cross!
Features of the Twelfth Edition
To my sons—who believe that I have nothing important to say about anything anyway—continually revising this book has always been clear evidence of my incompetence. Back when he was in middle school, my younger son once asked me, “Why do you keep writing the same book over and over? My English teacher made me rewrite a book report on To Kill a Mockingbird because I answered some questions wrong. Is that what’s going on here, Dad? Is your publisher making you write the book again because you made too many mistakes?” I told him no and that I’d make him read the whole book—cover to cover—if he continued to ask such questions. He stopped . . . although to this day, he’s still not convinced I have anything useful to say.
Despite his concerns, sociology textbooks do need to be revised regularly and frequently to be of any use. No book can be of lasting value if it remains static, locked into a particular style and content. So I keep my ears and eyes open, always looking for some new example or current issue to include in the book. My office overflows with stacks of books, newspaper clippings, photocopied journal articles, Post-it notes, and shreds of paper napkins containing scribbled ideas that I write to myself at the breakfast table when I come across something interesting. I’ve even been known to send myself e-mails at 3:00 in the morning so as not to forget the great idea that came to me in the haziness between sleep and wakefulness.
One thing I’ve learned over the years is that when revising a book, it’s a lot easier to add new material than it is to cut out the old stuff. But simply inserting bits and pieces here and there tends to make books fat and unwieldy. So I’ve tried to streamline this edition wherever possible. I’ve replaced outdated material with new material where appropriate, revised all the statistical information, condensed or deleted some sections, and changed the order of others.
Here are some of the specific changes I’ve made to enhance the features that worked so well in the previous editions.
Updated Examples and Statistical Information
As in the first 11 editions, I’ve peppered each chapter with anecdotes, personal observations, and accounts of contemporary events that serve as illustrations of the sociological points I’m making. Many of the examples you will read are taken from today’s news headlines; others come from incidents in my own life.
It would be impossible to write an introduction to the discipline of sociology without accounting for the life-altering occurrences—wars, natural disasters, school shootings, political upheavals, court decisions, economic meltdowns, the latest Kardashian escapade—that we hear about every day. So throughout this book, I’ve made a special effort to provide some sociological insight into well-known contemporary events and trends, both large and small. In doing so, I intend to show you the pervasiveness and applicability of sociology in our ordinary, everyday experiences in a way that, I hope, rings familiar with you.
As you will see, it is impossible to understand what happens to us in our personal lives without taking into consideration broader social and historical phenomena. Several specific recent developments have had—and will continue to have—a dramatic impact on sociological thought and on people’s everyday lives: the political changeover brought about by the 2016 election, trends in the global economy, the stream of fatal encounters between police and unarmed people of color, and the continued dramatic growth of communication technology, particularly ever-present social networking sites:

Brief Contents
1. Preface
2. Acknowledgments
3. About the Author
4. PART I • The Individual and Society
5. Chapter 1 • Taking a New Look at a Familiar World
6. Chapter 2 • Seeing and Thinking Sociologically
7. PART II • The Construction of Self and Society
8. Chapter 3 • Building Reality: The Social Construction of Knowledge
9. Chapter 4 • Building Order: Culture and History
10. Chapter 5 • Building Identity: Socialization
11. Chapter 6 • Supporting Identity: The Presentation of Self
12. Chapter 7 • Building Social Relationships: Intimacy and Families
13. Chapter 8 • Constructing Difference: Social Deviance
14. PART III • Social Structure, Institutions, and Everyday Life
15. Chapter 9 • The Structure of Society: Organizations, Social Institutions, and Globalization
16. Chapter 10 • The Architecture of Stratification: Social Class and Inequality
17. Chapter 11 • The Architecture of Inequality: Race and Ethnicity
18. Chapter 12 • The Architecture of Inequality: Sex and Gender
19. Chapter 13 • Demographic Dynamics: Population Trends
20. Chapter 14 • Architects of Change: Reconstructing Society
21. Glossary
22. References
23. Index