Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach,] 13th Edition

WELCOME TO SOCIOLOGY! ology since I was in my teens, and I hope you enjoy it, too. Sociology is fascinating because it is I’ve loved sociabout human behavior, and many of us find that it holds the key to understanding social life.
If you like to watch people and try to figure out why they do what they do, you will like sociology. Sociology pries open
the doors of society so you can see what goes on behind them.
Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach stresses how profoundly our society and the groups to which we belong influence us. Social class, for example, sets us on a particular path in life. For some, the path leads to more education, more interesting jobs, higher income, and better health, but for others it leads to dropping out of school, dead-end jobs, poverty, and even a higher risk of illness and disease. These paths are so significant that they affect our chances of making it to our first birthday, as well as of getting in trouble with the police.
They even influence our satisfaction in marriage, the number of children we will have—and whether or not we will read
this book in the first place.
When I took my first course in sociology, I was “hooked.” Seeing how marvelously my life had been affected by these larger social influences opened my eyes to a new world, one that has been fascinating to explore.
I hope that you will have this experience, too.
From how people become homeless to how they become presidents, from why people commit suicide to why women
are discriminated against in every society around the world— all are part of sociology. This breadth, in fact, is what makes
sociology so intriguing. We can place the sociological lens on broad features of society, such as social class, gender, and race– ethnicity, and then immediately turn our focus on the smaller, more intimate level. If we look at two people interacting— whether quarreling or kissing—we see how these broad features of society are being played out in their lives.
We aren’t born with instincts. Nor do we come into this world with preconceived notions of what life should be like. At birth, we have no concepts of race–ethnicity, gender, age, or social class. We have no idea, for example, that people “ought” to act in certain ways because they are male or female. Yet we all learn such things as we grow up in our society. Uncovering the “hows” and the “whys” of this process is also part of what makes sociology so fascinating.
One of sociology’s many pleasures is that as we study life in groups (which can be taken as a definition of sociology), whether those groups are in some far-off part of the world or in some nearby corner of our own society, we gain
new insights into who we are and how we got that way. As we see how their customs affect them, the effects of our own
society on us become more visible.
This book, then, can be part of an intellectual adventure, for it can lead you to a new way of looking at your social world—and in the process, help you to better understand both society and yourself.
I wish you the very best in college—and in your career afterward. It is my sincere desire that Essentials of Sociology:
A Down-to-Earth Approach will contribute to that success.
James M. Henslin