Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Social Issues
Kurt Finsterbusch
Published by McGraw-Hill/Dushkin, 2007 (14th ed.)

The Globalization of Nothing 2

George Ritzer

Published by Pine Forge Press, 2007

The Globalization of Nothing is back in a revised and completely updated edition, with an even greater emphasis on the processes of globalization and how they relate to McDonaldization. As before, this book is structured around four sets of concepts addressing the issues of: "places/non-places," "things/non-things," "people/non-people," and "services/non-services." By drawing upon salient examples from everyday life, George Ritzer invites the reader to examine the nuances of these concepts in conjunction with the paradoxes within the process of the globalization of nothing. Critical questions are raised throughout, and the reader is compelled not only to seek answers to these questions, but also to critically evaluate the questions as well as their answers.

"The Globalization of Nothing is one of the most original analyses of forces operating in the world today. The production and distribution of "nothing" or social formations that are centrally conceived, controlled and comparatively devoid of distinctive content represents a new way to address many of the issues raised by postmodern theory (without all of the jargon and anti-science rhetoric) and world systems theory (without the hoped for collapse of capitalism). It is critical but not shrill. It forces the reader to look at the contemporary work in a new way. The book is highly readable and engaging. It has something to say to the scholar, student, and layperson."

—Jonathan Turner

Social Psychology: Sociological Perspectives

David E. Rohall, Melissa A. Milkie, Jeffrey W. Lucas
Published by Allyn & Bacon, 2007

This text, written by a team of sociologists,  introduces students to social psychology by focusing on the contributions of sociology to this field, and on the perspectives, theories, and issues that are of the greatest importance to sociology.

Changing Rhythms of American Family Life

Suzanne M. Bianchi, John P. Robinson, and Melissa A. Milkie

Published by Russell Sage Foundation, 2006

Over the last forty years, the number of American households with a stay-at-home parent has dwindled as women have increasingly joined the paid workforce and more women raise children alone. Many policy makers feared these changes would come at the expense of time mothers spend with their children. In Changing Rhythms of American Family Life , sociologists Suzanne M. Bianchi, John P. Robinson, and Melissa Milkie analyze the way families spend their time and uncover surprising new findings about how Americans are balancing the demands of work and family.

Using time diary data from surveys of American parents over the last four decades, Changing Rhythms of American Family Life finds that—despite increased workloads outside of the home—mothers today spend at least as much time interacting with their children as mothers did decades ago—and perhaps even more. Unexpectedly, the authors find mothers' time at work has not resulted in an overall decline in sleep or leisure time. Rather, mothers have made time for both work and family by sacrificing time spent doing housework and by increased “multitasking.” Changing Rhythms of American Family Life finds that the total workload (in and out of the home) for employed parents is high for both sexes, with employed mothers averaging five hours more per week than employed fathers and almost nineteen hours more per week than homemaker mothers. Comparing average workloads of fathers with all mothers—both those in the paid workforce and homemakers—the authors find that there is gender equality in total workloads, as there has been since 1965. Overall, it appears that Americans have adapted to changing circumstances to ensure that they preserve their family time and provide adequately for their children.

Changing Rhythms of American Family Life explodes many of the popular misconceptions about how Americans balance work and family. Though the iconic image of the American mother has changed from a docile homemaker to a frenzied, sleepless working mom, this important new volume demonstrates that the time mothers spend with their families has remained steady throughout the decades.

From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism, and Feminism

Patricia Hill Collins

Published by Temple University Press, 2006

Honorable Mention at the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Awards, 2006

"Patricia Hill Collins provides a road map for the complex journey 'from Black Power to Hip Hop.' She begins with identifying how the legacy of a core racial triangle operates in different political and economic eras to reproduce racial inequalities. Her interrogation and assessment of the challenges that new racism poses for nationalist and feminist thinking can guide our unmasking of this new color blind society."
—Elizabeth Higginbotham, Professor of Sociology, University of Delaware , and author of Too Much To Ask: Black Women in the Era of Integration

"Patricia Hill Collins is one of the most insightful and stimulating voices in contemporary sociology. In these essays, she opens up new insights into contemporary American society and also into broad and enduring issues of sociological theory. She informs us about race and gender, but also through a discussion of race and gender informs us about society and culture more generally."
—Craig Calhoun, University Professor of the Social Sciences, New York University

"Patricia Hill Collins's steady intellect forges seamless wholes out of seemingly contradictory phenomena, notably black nationalism, feminism, and democracy. With her customary insight, Collins offers both trenchant analysis and strategies of empowerment. A most welcome analysis in these times!"
—Nell Irvin Painter, author of Creating Black Americans: African-American History and Its Meanings, 1619 to the Present

"[H]er book offers a refreshing view of the politics on the ground, where people matter more than identities and the ideologies embedded within them."
—Ms. Magazine

"Hill Collins' policy of opening dialogue about topics many are too afraid to touch has earned her a place alongside academic rock stars like bell hooks and Cornel West."
— Philadelphia Weekly

Race, Class, and Gender: An Anthology

Margaret Andersen and Patricia Hills Collins

Published by Wadsworth Publishing; 2006

Race, Class, and Gender includes many interdisciplinary readings. The author's selection of very accessible articles show how race, class, and gender shape people's experiences, and help students to see the issues in an analytic, as well as descriptive way. The book also provides conceptual grounding in understanding race, class, and gender; has a strong historical and sociological perspective; and is further strengthened by conceptual introductions by the authors. Students will find the readings engaging and accessible, but may gain the most from the introduction sections that highlight key points and relate the essential concepts. Included in the collection of readings are narratives aimed at building empathy, and articles on important social issues such as prison, affirmative action, poverty, immigration, and racism, among other topics.

Innovation, Science, and Institutional Change: A Research Handbook

Jerald Hage and Marius Meeus

Published by Oxford University Press, 2006

Innovation is central to the dynamics and success of organizations and society in the modern world DS the process famously referred to by Schumpeter as 'gales of creative destruction'. This ambitious and wide ranging book makes the case for a new approach to the study of innovation. It is the editors' conviction that this approach must accomplish several objectives: it must recognize that innovation encompasses changes in organizations and society, as well as products and processes; it must be genuinely interdisciplinary and include contributes from economics, sociology, management and political science; It must be international, to reflect both different patterns or systems of innovation, and different research traditions; and it must reflect the fundamental changes taking place in science, research and knowledge creation at all levels. To this end they have gathered together a distinguished group of economists, sociologist, political scientists, and organization, innovation and institutional theorists to both assess current research on innovation, and to set out a new research agenda. This has been achieved through careful planning and development of the project, and also through the ensuing structure of the book which looks in turn at Product and Process Innovation (perhaps the best established focus of existing research on innovation), Scientific Research (assessing the changing character of basic research and science policy); Knowledge Dynamics in Context (encompassing organizational learning in all its aspects); and Institutional Change (an analysis of the institutional context that can shape, enable and constrain innovation). This carefully integrated and wide ranging book will be an ideal reference point for academics and researchers across the Social Sciences interested in all dimensions of innovation - be they in the field of Management Studies, Economics, Organization Studies, Sociology, Political Science and Science and Technology Studies.

Race, Gender, and Class: Theory and Methods of Analysis (Paperback)

Bart Landry

Published by Lynne Rienner Publishers Inc ( 1996); Prentice Hall (2006)

This edited volume provides race, class, gender theory and detailed guidelines, strategies, and rules for the methodology of the Race, Class and Gender approach.  This first edition text uses "Intersection Theory"  to expose the reader to some of the best journal articles that employ the Race, Class, Gender approach in qualitative and quantitative research.

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Work, Family, Health, and Well-Being

Edited by Suzanne M. Bianchi, Lynne M. Casper, Rosalind Berkow King

Published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2005

Work, Family, Health, and Well-Being grew out of a conference held in Washington , D.C. in June 2003 on "Workforce/Workplace Mismatch: Work, Family, Health, and Well-Being" sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The text considers multiple dimensions of health and well-being for workers and their families, children, and communities. Investigations into the socioeconomic gradient in health within broad occupational categories have raised important questions about the role of specific working conditions versus the role of conditions of employment such as wages and level of job security afforded a worker and his/her family in affecting health outcomes.

Black Sexual Politics : African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism

Patricia Hill Collins,

Published by Routledge, 2005.

Winner of the 2007 ASA Distinguished Book Awatd

It is an incisive and provocative analysis of Black masculinity and femininity that questions the links between prevailing Black sexual politics, their connection to black gender ideology, and struggles for African American empowerment in response to this new racism.  Collins addresses the need for African Americans to rebel against the ideas and practices that disempower them, underscoring different conceptions of femininity and masculinity that do not simply mimic those of White men and women, but that reflect the needs of actual lived Black experience and that contribute toward building a true democracy in the United States . A revolutionary work that touches the intimate and public lives of African Americans, Black Sexual Politics clearly illuminates the subtle interplay of race, sex, and politics in American culture today.

"Patricia Hill Collins' brilliant and ground-breaking analysis of the urgency of a more progressive Black sexual politics among African Americans is nothing short of a tour de force."
—Beverly Guy-Sheftall, co-author of Gender Talk

"This book is at once a theoretical tour de force and a must read for all who care about the lives of black folk in the twenty-first century."
—Michael Eric Dyson, author of Why I Love Black Women

A leading scholar in the field of black feminist studies, Patricia Hill Collins once again challenges readers to think differently, this time about sexuality in black communities. Collins argues for a new black sexual politics, focused on liberating black women and men and highlighting the role of culture in this struggle. This book is sure to spark needed and timely debate.

--Cathy J. Cohen, author of The Boundaries of Blackness

Expressing America
George Ritzer

Published by Pine Forge Press, 2005

The explosive growth of consumer credit, as well as the shift from cash to "plastic" in societies throughout the world signals a transformation in social relations, which is the focus of this book. For student readers who know the world of credit cards all too well, this is a great way to interest and educate them on the power of thinking sociologically.

Rooted in Place: Family and Belonging in a Southern Black Community
William W. Falk

Published by Rutgers University Press, 2004

Throughout the twentieth century, millions of African Americans, many from impoverished, historically black counties, left the South to pursue what they thought would be a better life in the North. But not everyone moved away during what scholars have termed the Great Migration. What has life been like for those who stayed? Why would they remain in a place that many outsiders would see as grim, depressed, economically marginal, and where racial prejudice continues to place them at a disadvantage?

Through oral history William W. Falk tells the story of an extended family in the Georgia-South Carolina low country. Family members talk about schooling, kinship, work, religion, race, and their love of the place where they have lived for generations. This "conversational ethnography" argues that an interconnection between race and place in the area helps explain African Americans' loyalty to it. In Colonial County , blacks historically enjoyed a numerical majority as well as deep cultural roots and longstanding webs of social connections that, Falk finds, more than outweigh the racism they face and the economic disadvantages they suffer.

" Rooted in Place brings the texture of a southern family epic and the sociological imagination together with intellectual courage and intimacy. Absorbing and original."

—Carol Stack, author of All Our Kin and Call to Home

Methods for Testing and Evaluating Survey Questionnaires

Stanley Presser, Jennifer Rothgeb, Mick Couper, Judith Lessler, Elizabeth Martin, Jean Martin and Eleanor Singer

Published by Wiley, 2004
 

This volume offers a state-of-the-art overview of questionnaire testing and evaluation. The book covers cognitive interviewing, interaction analysis, response latency, respondent debriefings, vignette analysis, split-sample comparisons, statistical modeling, mode of administration, and special populations.

"...a superb resource...This volume should be in every survey practitioner's library."

—Contemporary Sociology

"...the ultimate resource for writing statistically valid surveys."

—Technometrics

"This volume is essential for anyone collecting or using survey data."

—Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A

Valuing Oil Spill Prevention

Richard Carson, Michael Conaway, Michael Hanemann, Jon Krosnick, Robert Mitchell, and Stanley Presser

Published by Kluwer/Springer, 2004
 

This volume describes what is arguably the first and only valuation study to meet in full the reference study standards set by NOAA's Blue Ribbon Panel on Contingent Valuation. This book documents a contingent valuation study for a generic environmental good: preventing the likely injuries from oil spills on the coast of Central California . It provides a wealth of materials which will reduce the long lead time which characterizes most economic damage assessments. This is achieved by so richly documenting the design, administration, and analysis of such studies as to be effectively a 'how-to' guide for undertaking state-of-the-art contingent valuation studies.

The McDonaldization of Society

George Ritzer

Published by Pine Forge Press, 2004
 

Communities of Work: Rural Restructuring in Local and Global Contexts

Edited by William W. Falk, Michael D. Schulman and Ann R. Tickamyer

Published by Ohio University Press, 2003

The image of rural America portrayed in this illuminating study is one that is vibrant, regionally varied, and sometimes heroic. Communities of Work focuses on the ways in which rural people and places are affected by political, social, and economic forces far outside their control and how they sustain themselves and their communities in response.

Bringing together the two fundamental concepts of community—where the relationships and practices of daily life occur—and work, in which an elementary exchange occurs, Communities of Work bridges several fields of study. Presented here is the contextual and embedded nature of social relations and the complexity involved in understanding them. Through the use of multiple case studies, the authors apply diverse theories and methods in seeking an integrated outcome, one captured by “communities of work.”

Beginning with a description of the broad changes in work and economic activities across the United States , ranging from the Ohio River Valley to a western boomtown, the book shifts its focus to the interplay of work, family, and local networks in time and place. Activities range from fishing in the Mississippi Delta to farming and family life in the Midwest . The authors then highlight how rural people and places respond to extra-local, increasingly global forces in settings as diverse as rural South Carolina and Wisconsin .

A certain communitarian theme runs through Communities of Work . It is about people and communities not merely reacting, but instead responding in ways that reflect their local culture, while being cognizant of the larger world within which they live.

Working in a 24/7 Economy: Challenges for American Families

Harriet Presser
Published by Russell Sage Foundation, 2003

An economy that operates 24/7 as ours now imposes extraordinary burdens on workers. Two-fifths of all employed Americans work mostly during evenings, nights, weekends, or on rotating shifts outside the traditional 9-to-5 work day. The pervasiveness of nonstandard work schedules has become a significant social phenomenon, with important implications for the health and well-being of workers and their families. In Working in a 24/7 Economy , Harriet Presser looks at the effects of nonstandard work schedules on family functioning and shows how these schedules disrupt marriages and force families to cobble together complex child-care arrangements that should concern us all.

The number of hours Americans work has received ample attention, but the issue of which hours or days Americans work has received much less scrutiny. Working in a 24/7 Economy provides a comprehensive overview of who works nonstandard schedules and why. Presser argues that the growth in women's employment, technological change, and other demographic changes over the past thirty years gave rise to the growing demand for late-shift and weekend employment in the service sector. She also demonstrates that most people who work these hours do so primarily because it is a job requirement, rather than a choice based on personal considerations. Presser shows that the consequences of working nonstandard schedules often differ for men and women since housework and child-rearing remain assigned primarily to women even when both spouses are employed. As with many other social problems, the burden of these schedules disproportionately affects the working poor, reflecting their lack of options in the workplace and adding to their disadvantage. Presser also documents how such work arrangements have created a new rhythm of daily life within many American families, including those with two earners and absent fathers. With spouses often not at home together in the evenings or nights, and parents often not at home with their children at such times, the relatively new concept of "home-time" has emerged as primary concern for families across the nation.

Employing a wealth of empirical data, Working in a 24/7 Economy shows that nonstandard work schedules are both highly prevalent among American families and generate a level of complexity in family functioning that demands greater public attention. Presser makes a convincing case for expanded research and meaningful policy initiatives to address this growing social phenomenon.

Black Working Wives: Pioneers of the American Family Revolution

Bart Landry

Published by University of California Press, 2002

"Beautifully written, combining attention to detail with a writing style that draws the reader into the perspective of the author."

--Laura Dreuth, Journal of Family Studies

"A testament to the power of ideology and self-definition to restrict and open opportunities for marginal social groups. . . .It is superbly researched, well documented, and is an exemplar of the type of straightforward prose sociologists should be using."

--David N. Pellow, Contemporary Sociology

"Bart Landry's Black Working Wives is a very comprehensive account of the family revolution in America . I learned a great deal reading this thoughtful book. Landry's discussion of the dual career marriages of black women decades before the feminist revolution, and the lessons they provide not only for understanding dynamic changes in American families but also for anticipating the future of the modern two-career family, is insightful and persuasive."

--William Julius Wilson, author of The Bridge over the Racial Divide

"Bart Landry's Black Working Wives is a perceptive analysis that connects the historical circumstances of Black women to the transformation of modern American family structures. This is an important contribution which should engage general readers, students, and public policy leaders and deepen our understanding of the origins and value of the dual career family."

--Darlene Clark Hine, author of Speak Truth to Power

"Landry blends history, demography, and contemporary social analysis to illuminate the form and function of African-American families over time. He does a particularly good job of describing how, decades ago, middle-class black families prefigured the relatively egalitarian, two-wage earner households that are so common today. An incisive and rewarding book."

--Jacqueline Jones, author of American Work

"Landry has made a significant contribution to an existing body of literature on the family and race--and, more important, he has advanced a position that is not present in that literature."

--Troy Duster, University of California , Berkeley , and New York University

McDonaldization: The Reader

George Ritzer

Published by Pine Forge Press, 2002

Continuity and Change in the American Family

Lynne M. Casper and Suzanne M. Bianchi

Published by Sage Publications, 2001

Winner of the 2002 Otis Dudley Duncan Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Social Demography

Continuity and Change in the American Family engages students with issues they see every day in the news, providing them with a comprehensive description of the social demography of the American family. Understanding ever-changing family systems and patterns requires taking the pulse of contemporary family life from time to time. This book paints a portrait of family continuity and change in the later half of the 20 th century, with a focus on data from the 1970's to present. The authors explore such topics as the growth in cohabitation, changes in childbearing, and how these trends affect family life. Other topics include the changing lives of single mothers, fathers, and grandparents and increasing economic disparities among families; child care and child well-being; and combining paid work and family. The authors are talented writers who bring considerable professional and scholarly background to bear in illuminating this topic in a thoughtful yet lively presentation. 

Balancing Act: Motherhood, Marriage, and Employment Among American Women

Daphne Spain and Suzanne M. Bianchi

Published by Sage Publications, 2001

A wonderful compendium of everything you always wanted to know about trends in women's roles--both in and out of the home. It is a balanced and data-rich assessment of how far women have come and how far they still have to go.

—Isabelle Sawhill, Urban Institute

Based primarily on the 1990 population census, Balancing Act reports on the current situation of American women and temporal and cross-national comparisons. Meticulously and clearly presented, the information in this book highlights changing behaviors, such as the growing incidence of childbearing to older women, and unmarried women in general, and a higher ratio of women's earnings to men's. The authors' thoughtful analysis of these and other factors involved in women's fin de siècle 'balancing act' make this an indispensable reference book and valuable classroom resource.

—Louise A. Tilly, Michael E. Gellert Professor of History and Sociology, The New School for Social Research

Explorations in Social Theory: From Metatheorizing to Rationalization

George Ritzer

Published by Sage Publications, 2001

In this essential new book, George Ritzer considers some of the main tendencies in contemporary social theory. Included here are Ritzer's latest reflections on the uses and misuses of metatheory. According to Ritzer, sociology is a multiparadigm science. The differences and intensities of rivalries between paradigms are often very confusing for students and even for professional sociologists. This book seeks to find a way out of the confusion by sketching out the lineaments of a new integrated sociological paradigm and demonstrates how this paradigm can be applied. It shows the various ways in which Ritzer has developed rationalization theory to shed light on professional integration, the shape of consumer culture, hyperrationality and the state of sociology today.

Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment.

Patricia Hill Collins

Published by Routledge, 2000 (2nd ed.).

In her introduction, Patricia Hill Collins states that her work is informed by the totality of her experience as the daughter of working-class parents, her education as a sociologist and educator, and her daily "non-scholarly activities" as wife, mother, community activist, sister, and friend. Black Feminist Thought is the first history and analysis of "Black women's ideas" told in a voice that is "both individual and collective, personal and political, one reflecting the intersection of my unique biography with the larger meaning of my historical times." In it we discover new meanings for selected and neglected traditional female themes like gossip, hair, TV, movies, food, and clothing; get a fresh look at where and how knowledge is produced; learn about self-definition and about kitchens, factories, and neighborhoods as "alternative locations for intellectual work." The implications of her chapters, "The Ethic of Caring," "The Ethic of Personal Accountability," and "Reconceptualizing Race, Class, and Gender as Interlocking Systems of Oppression," are enormous and compelling. For readers interested in the sources and definitions of knowledge - especially those whose history and intellectual tradition has been lost, denied, or denigrated - Black Feminist Thought is one of the most inspiring, exciting, and valuable books you'll ever read.

—Jesse Larsen

Women's Empowerment and Demographic Processes: Moving Beyond Cairo

Edited by Harriet Presser and Gita Sen

Published by Oxford University Press, 2000

"Excellent and long-overdue collection of essays ... In their introductory essay, Presser and Sen provide an admirable overview."

 —Population and Development Review

"This book is a useful resource for researchers and practitioners who are looking for tools and for models to follow in transforming an ideological and academic commitment to women's empowerment into solid empirical research."

—Gender & Society

"This book does make necessary contributions to the study of both gender and of demographic processes, largely because it gathers together a broad set of analytic tools, schemata, and concepts for talking about women's empowerment - a veritable "tool kit" for those who want to study empowerment but are not sure where to begin or how to approach this vast topic."

—Gender & Society

Time for Life : The Surprising Ways Americans Use Their Time

John P. Robinson and Geoffrey and Godbey
Published by Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999

Is it possible that Americans have more free time than they did thirty years ago? While few may believe it, research based on careful records of how we actually spend our time shows that we average more than an hour more free time per day than in the 1960s. Time-use experts John P. Robinson and Geoffrey Godbey received national attention when their controversial findings were first published in 1997. Now the book is updated, with a new chapter that includes results of the 1995-1997 data from the Americans' Use of Time Project.

The Postmodern Military: Armed Forces after the Cold War

Edited by Charles C. Moskos, John Allen Williams and David R. Segal

Published by Oxford University Press, 1999

"The Postmodern Military is one of the most readable and enlightening works on contemporary military affairs to be published in recent years. Amid the pre-occupation with technology and strategy in academic circles, it reminds us that the most salient issues facing Western militaries are of a decidely human nature."

—CISS Bulletin

"Timely, much needed book to start the 21st century. Impressive."

—Morten Ender , United States Military Academy
 

"A timely concept splendidly executed...brings to bear an arsenal of the highest-caliber insights. This is one of the few genuinely-worthwhile books on contemporary military affairs...highly recommended!"

—Ralph Peters, author of Fighting for the Future

"It has been said that no great power has reformed its military absent a major military defeat. This book offers a blueprint, a compass, and hope for 21st Century America to avoid this fate. It should become central in a post-Cold War debate over the future of the American military."

—Gary Hart, Co-chair, U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century and former member, Senate Armed Services committee

Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice

Patricia Hill Collins

Published by University of Minnesota Press, 1998

"In her perceptive book, Fighting Words, Patricia Hill Collins, a leading scholar in critical theory, argues that intellectuals who break with conventional wisdom are more of a threat to the establishment than their numbers might suggest."

—Joe R. Feagin in The Chronicle of Higher Education

"Fighting Words is a treatise, if you will, encouraging all black women to engage in dialogue and to reach out to each other, regardless of education, income, or class. Fighting Words is an amazing work in the way it seamlessly combines the histories of black women and feminism. Even more impressive is the way Collins blends her personal experiences as a black woman, educator, and sociologist. Collins is all about telling the truth, now. That is probably why Fighting Words is such a revelation."

—Black Issues Book Review

"Collins argues that the political gains of black women's 'talking back' now must be measured against changes brought on by the postmodern criticism of social science and Afrocentricism. Collins calls for a critical social theory that not only encourages black women's full participation in social life but actually grounds its own authority in its ability to enable black women's full participation."

—American Journal of Sociology

"This book has many suggestive ideas and well-thought-through social theoretical analyses. In line with her earlier work, Collins continues to argue that group positions generate epistemological standpoints from which people ask and answer questions of social knowledge in different ways. She considers whether recent theories of Black women as having 'intersectional' positions is a better conceptualization of the specific standpoint of Black women. Collins's book offers much to think about and to discuss for those involved in struggles generated by encounters and events beyond theory."

—Hypatia

Dollars and Votes: How Business Campaign Contributions Subvert Democracy

Dan Clawson, Alan Neustadtl and Mark Weller

Published by Temple University Press, 1998

"This is quite simply the best book ever written about campaign finance in America . The extensive interviews with corporate government relations people that form the main evidential basis of the book are stunning in their candor and what they reveal about corporate intentions. No journalist or social scientist will be able to talk about campaign finance in the future without coming to terms with this splendid book."
—Edward S. Greenberg, Political Science, University of Colorado , Boulder

Recent scandals, including questionable fund-raising tactics by the current administration, have brought campaign finance reform into the forefront of the news and the public consciousness. Dollars and Votes goes beyond the partial, often misleading, news stories and official records to explain how our campaign system operates. The authors conducted thorough interviews with corporate "government relations" officials about what they do and why they do it. The results provide some of the most damning evidence imaginable.

What donors, especially business donors, expect for their money is "access" and access means a lot more than a chance to meet and talk. They count on secret behind-the-scenes deals, like a tax provision that applies only to a "corporation incorporated on June 13, 1917, which has its principal place of business in Bartlesville , Oklahoma ." After a deal is worked out behind closed doors, one executive explains, "it doesn't much matter how people vote afterwards."

Ordinary contributions give access to Congress; megabuck "soft money" contributions ensure access to the President and top leaders. The striking truth revealed by these authors is that half the soft money comes from fewer than five hundred big donors, and that most contributions come, directly or indirectly, from business. Reform is possible, they argue, by turning away from the temptation of looking at specific scandals and developing a new system that removes the influence of big money campaign contributors.

Politics, Social Change and Economic Restructuring in Latin America

William C. Smith and Roberto Patricio Korzeniewicz

Published by University of Miami , North/South Center Press, June 1997

Latin America in the World-economy

Roberto Patricio Korzeniewicz and William C. Smith
Published by Greenwood Press , 1996

Latin America is in the midst of dramatic transformations. Stabilization and structural adjustment programs are dismantling state regulation of the economy. Democratic transitions are pointing toward the emergence of new institutional arrangements. Democratization and market-oriented economic restructuring pose major questions concerning new social configurations combining rising levels of poverty, "low intensity" citizenship, environmental degradation, and enduring legacies of elite privilege and authoritarianism.

Analyzing these and related issues, this volume contributes to a world-system perspective suggesting that the region is experiencing a "great transformation" characterized by a deepening differentiation between state, enterprises, and households. Emergent patterns of competition and organizational change are discussed along with the social consequences of restructuring and the potential for political transformation.

Forgotten Places: Uneven Development and the Loss of Opportunity in Rural America

Edited by Thomas A. Lyson and William W. Falk

Published by University Press of Kansas , 1993

In spite of a quarter century of serious effort to eliminate, or at least reduce, rural poverty, pockets of intense poverty still exist. If you want to know why this is so, Forgotten Places will provide many insightful and thought provoking answers."

--Gene Summers, author of Technology and Social Change in Rural Areas

"A welcome, readable analysis of rural poverty in key regions across the country. A major contribution to rural sociology."

--John Gaventa, author of Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley

Peacekeepers and Their Wives American Participation in the Multinational Force and Observers

David Segal and Mady Segal

Published by Greenwood Press, 1993

The crux of this essay is that family support groups are virtually indispensable to maintain stability within many military homes. The book attests to the remarkably high anxiety threshold that wives of peacekeepers develop through a proverbial trail by fire.
—The Friday Review of Defense Literature

Peacekeepers should be required reading for researchers and practitioners involved in any facet of peace operations, or multinational efforts. The book contains numerous significant findings, and consolidates and synthesizes the history of peacekeeping operations, including an in-depth look at American forces in the Sinai. The authors review changes in the nature of the military function, the history of peacekeeping operations, and the issues that remain to be resolved.
—Armed Forces and Society

The new instutionalism has yet to embrace studies of the military. This book is an exception.
—Social Forces

Recruiting for Uncle Sam: Citizenship and Military Manpower Policy

David R. Segal

Published by University Press of Kansas ; 1992

"The most important book on the American armed forces in recent years, brilliantly documented and powerfully presented."

--Charles Moskos, author of A Call to Civic Service

"The definitive overview of U.S. military manpower history."

—Military Review

"The subject is covered in minute detail, starting with a comprehensive review of pertinent American history and concluding with a marshaling of arguments on all sides of such issues as voluntarism vs. conscription, forces-in-being vs. mobilization, social-welfare vs. military readiness, and big wars vs. small. Just when you think the author cannot possibly tackle another aspect, he does so with crystal-clear logic, seriousness tempered with gentle humor, and graceful prose. Most remarkable is his mastery of the strategic considerations which rightly underlie the design and manning of forces. In an area where muddled thinking is not uncommon, this book is a beacon of sound thought."

—Parameters

"A clear, concise review of the history and current condition of a major public question-how people are induced to serve and risk their lives for the nation."

--John Shy, author of A People Numerous and Armed

"Policymakers will find much to debate in Segal's controversial suggestions for the future of the U.S. military."-

—American Journal of Sociology

"A major contribution, and quite timely given the nature of world affairs today."

—John Sibley Butler, author of Inequality in the Military: The Black Experience

High Tech, Low Tech, No Tech: Recent Industrial and Occupational Change in the South

William W. Falk

Published by State University of New York Press, 1988

The New Black Middle Class

Bart Landry
Published April 1987

"Extremely well-written. . . . Mr. Landry has filled a need with his study of the new black middle class--blacks who have achieved middle-class status since the civil rights revolution of the 1960's."

—Don Wycliff, The New York Times

"Landry's study is filled with startling and revealing information. . . . In presenting his, by and large, sobering analysis, Landry does not detract from the achievements blacks have made and, when examining the emergence of the new black middle class, he pays particular attention to the strength of the black family: mothers and fathers, nuclear and extended."

—Tonya Bolden Davis , Black Enterprise

"Landry has written a revealing book which provides an important antidote to the optimistic-sounding findings of the Civil Rights Commission."

—Andrew Hacker, The New York Review of Books

Survey Questions: Handcrafting the Standardized Questionnaire

Jean Converse and Stanley Presser

Published by Sage, 1986
 

This volume reviews this experimental literature on how survey questions "behave," and provides both general guiding principles and specific advice on how to develop a survey questionnaire, emphasizing the practical implications of the experience and research of questionnaire designers. The authors outline ways in which to make pilot and pretest work more fruitful.

"...a highly readable introduction to questionnaire construction."

—Teaching Sociology

"...a best buy, with useful information on every page."

—Contemporary Sociology

Questions and Answers in Attitude Surveys

Howard Schuman and Stanley Presser

Published by Academic Press (1981, hardback); Sage (1996, paperback)
 

Awarded the 2005 Philip Converse Award by the American Political Science Association Section on Public Opinion and Voting
 

Questions and Answers in Attitude Surveys covers such issues as question order and response order effects; the lack of overlap between respondent-generated categories for open-ended questions and the closed categories generated by research, even with extensive pretesting with open questions; the effects of explicitly offering respondents a "don't know" or a middle opinion alternative; attitude strength and its relation to reliability; and issues of wording tone.

"Questions and Answers in Attitude Surveys makes an enormous contribution to the field of survey methodology and ranks with such classics as Hyman's Interviewing and Kish 's Survey Sampling. To the extent that survey research is only as reliable as its methodology, this book becomes a long-missing foundation stone for the social sciences in general."

—American Journal of Sociology

"This volume reports on the sort of program of research we all constantly advocate. . . . It is large-scale, systematic, and cumulative. . . . The book is chock-full of . . . careful generalizations, leaving a reader informed and dazzled."

—Public Opinion Quarterly

"This is a classic. . . . Howard Schuman and Stanley Presser have produced a work whose insights and vision have an enduring quality. . . . No one undertaking public opinion analysis in years to come can be taken seriously without becoming intimately familiar with this pioneering research."
—Social Forces