Table of Contents

1. How Do Sociologists Study Society? Researching the Social World. 2. What Does It Mean To Be Human? Human Nature, Society, and Culture. 3. How Is Society Possible? The Basis for Social Order. 4. Why Are People Unequal In Society? The Origin and Perpetuation of Social Inequality. 5. Are Human Beings Free? The Power of Society over Human Thinking and Action. 6. What Can't Everyone Be Just Like Us? Value Judgments, Ethnocentrism, and Human Differences. 7. Why Is There Misery In The World? Society as an Important Source of Human Problems. 8. Does The Individual Really Make A Difference? An Introduction to Social Change. 9. Is Organized Religion Necessary For Society? Tradition, Modernization, and Secularization. 10. Is the World Becoming One Society? Globalization and the Creation of a World Society. 11. Why Study Sociology? Afterword: Should We Generalize About People?

About the Author

Joel Charon (Ph.D., University of Minnesota) is a successful author and emeritus professor of Sociology at Minnesota State University at Moorhead. He has published numerous textbooks and readers, and is a member of the ASA and the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction.