Chapter 17
Ten Sociology Books That Don’t
Feel Like Homework
In This Chapter
Finding books that are fun and informative
Reaching a better understanding of social conditions
If you want to learn more about sociology — and subjects studied by sociologists — you can always pick up a textbook, or one of Talcott Parsons’s impenetrable tomes. You’ll probably have a better experience, however, and possibly even learn more if you start with one of the many sociological books
that are fun and interesting to read.
Your local librarian or bookseller may be able to recommend some, but here are my personal suggestions: ten books that represent a wide range of
sociological topics. In each of these books you’ll find interesting, eye-opening observations; many of them also tell compelling true stories. Qualitative research is particularly well-represented here because qualitative studies can be easier to relate to — but each of these books takes into account, and has informed, quantitative studies as well. (See Chapter 4 for a description of the distinction between qualitative and quantitative research.)
Some of these titles are relatively obscure, and some are bestselling classics of sociology; they’re all well-researched and well-written, and each is a door into the vast, fascinating discipline of sociology.
Randall Collins: Sociological Insight
Randall Collins is a preeminent sociologist in his own right, but he’s also helped to communicate sociological theory — thorny as it sometimes is — to a wide audience of students, researchers, and general readers with his publications Four Sociological Traditions and Sociological Insight.
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Sociological Insight is the book that got me hooked on sociology. Here, Collins’s goal is to share what he refers to as “non-obvious” insights from sociology, to show why sociology is a unique and powerful way of thinking about the social world. The very readable chapters range over topics such as crime, relationships, and power; in each case, Collins shows why thinking about the topic sociologically lets you understand it in a way you might not otherwise.
What the book Freakonomics did for economics a few years ago, Sociological Insight did for sociology in 1982. How is being in a romantic relationship like owning property? What is the true nature of power in society? Why is crime inevitable, and maybe even good? You come away from Sociological Insight feeling like you’re in on a secret — that because of sociology, you now understand the world in a way that most other people don’t. It can be a little disorienting, but it’s also a lot of fun.
William Foote Whyte:
Street Corner Society
This 1943 book is one of the most important books in American sociology. It’s one of the best demonstrations of the power of ethnography — a form of qualitative research involving deep immersion in a community. Whyte conducted the research for this book while he was a fellow at Harvard; he spent four years living in Boston’s “Little Italy” and got to know the community intimately. Street Corner Society is a detailed, fascinating portrait of that community. (See Chapter 14 for more on William Foote Whyte and his place in urban sociology.)
Besides demonstrating the value of patient ethnography, Street Corner Society documents the deep complexities of the kind of communities commonly regarded as marginal. Before sociology, people looked to great philosophers or the ancient Romans for models of how society “should” work. Sociologists said, let’s take a look at how society does work — and that meant, and still means, looking at societies that might not be considered exemplary. By writing about the tremendous richness and depth of society in a neighborhood some might have called a “ghetto” (and that Whyte himself called a “slum”), Whyte proved that society is just as fascinating when viewed from the bottom up as it is when viewed from the top down.
It’s also a touching human story, particularly the portion about the “corner boys” whose leader struggles to find his own place in life even as he helps resolve conflicts and knit friendships among gang members. The corner boys do a lot of bowling, and it turns out that the boys held in higher esteem at the moment also tend to score the highest at bowling. Bowling leagues today probably observe the same phenomenon.
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William H. Whyte: The
Organization Man
This thick but readable 1955 book is more of an extended essay than a traditional sociological study, and in part for that reason, it’s more dated than other sociological bestsellers of its time. Still, it’s a fascinating portrait of postwar America, where suburbs were sprouting and national corporations were extending their reach with a big and well-trained workforce.
Like other sociologists of his time (including David Riesman, author of The Lonely Crowd), William H. Whyte was concerned about the homogeneity of American society in the 1950s. He believed that “the organization man,” a man concerned with conformity more than enterprising individuality, was becoming the new model for the American worker.
In the central section of the book, Whyte documents social life in a newly developing suburb; he sees suburbs as the monotonous hubs of the lives of the new “organization men.” Almost against his own will, though, Whyte documents the vibrant, bustling social life among the young families who enthusiastically populate the suburban homes of which he’s so suspicious. (For more on William H. Whyte and his views on suburban life, see Chapter 14.)
Erving Goffman: The Presentation
of Self in Everyday Life
For over half a century, this 1959 book has all but defined microsociology. Like a good novel, it reads as though it were written in one sitting, with ideas and inspirations spilling out of Goffman as fast as his fingers could type.
Goffman’s central idea is that we’re actors on a stage, performing the “characters” we want others to see. That idea is at least as old as Hamlet, but what Goffman brings is an acute sociological eye and a drive to push his premise as far as it will go. If we’re actors on a stage, when and how do we switch characters? What happens when the “stage” (the setting) or the “costumes” change? If we’re always acting, then is the “character” at work one who’s “played” by the character we are at home? And who plays that character? The possibilities might make your head spin, and they’ll no doubt be inspiring sociological research for the next 50 years as well.
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Elijah Anderson: Streetwise
Elijah Anderson’s contemporary classic, published in 1992, is really two studies in one. Anderson writes about two Philadelphia neighborhoods: the gentrifying “Village” and the tough, impoverished “Northton.” (See Chapter 14 for more on this study.) Both neighborhoods are facing serious challenges, and Anderson takes the reader deep inside each neighborhood, offering greater understanding but not promising any easy solutions . . . because there are none. Many of the best sociology books are about communities, but Northton and the Village may be more recognizable to you than a Depression-era slum (Street Corner Society) or a 1950s suburb (The Organization Man).
The Northton section is especially compelling, and has been especially controversial. Anderson’s claim that the disappearance of “old head” role models has contributed greatly to the destructive behavior of younger generations has been criticized by some as an argument blaming the young victims of poverty and racism for their own circumstances. Decide for yourself after reading the book — you won’t regret it, and you won’t forget it.
Arlie Hochschild: The Second Shift
You’ll definitely recognize yourself, or your parents, or other people you know in Hochschild’s stories of couples managing their household labor. The Second Shift is worth reading — especially for couples — if only for acknowledgement that it’s not only you who face challenges dividing responsibilities fairly. (See Chapter 15 for more on Hochschild’s observations about gender and household labor.)
The Second Shift is also notable in the sociology of sex and gender as one of the first major works to signal that the “sexual revolution” was far from over — not at the book’s initial 1989 publication, and not today. Just because men agree that women deserve equal treatment doesn’t mean that they actually treat women equally, or that they’re willing to take on responsibilities traditionally allotted to women. That situation is happily beginning to change, but as long as there’s tension between what people say and what they do, The Second Shift will remain relevant.
Viviana Zelizer: Pricing
the Priceless Child
A real eye-opener. Forget everything you ever thought you knew about what’s “best” for children: Zelizer shows just how very different childhood was
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prior to the 20th century, and how quickly it changed in just a few decades as rates of childbirth (and also of child death) dropped quickly and children were yanked out of the workforce and off the streets. One of many fascinating stories that Zelizer tells regards the transition in children’s life insurance, the value of which was once computed by figuring the amount of income parents were losing with the death of a child. Once children were no longer economically valuable, they became emotionally “priceless.” (For more on this idea, see Chapter 15.)
Pricing the Priceless Child is also an excellent example of historical sociology, a method where historical records serve as the evidence to answer a sociological question. Zelizer relies on an array of sources: some of them shocking, some of them amusing, all of them interesting.
Michael Schwalbe: Unlocking
the Iron Cage
Although The Second Shift shows that even “sensitive men” can be awfully insensitive, Unlocking the Iron Cage shows that even “manly” men can be surprisingly sensitive. Schwalbe’s fascinating study takes the reader inside the “men’s movement,” a movement in which men gathered to explore issues of gender and power. Media reports of sweat lodges and drum-beating made the participants sound like insecure sexists, but Schwalbe found that most participants were actually committed feminists who wanted to be as proud of their own gender as their wives, mothers, and daughters were of theirs.
Schwalbe’s methodology was participant observation — he actually sat in those circles and hunched in those sweat lodges along with his subjects — and he’s honest about the friendships he formed with the men he met. How can sociologists avoid being biased by their personal feelings about their subjects? Suggest Unlocking the Iron Cage to your book club; you’ll want to debate about it with someone when you’ve finished reading it.
Richard Peterson: Creating
Country Music
In addition to being a top sociologist of culture, Richard Peterson is an ardent music fan — and it shows in this fun book about the history of country music. Country music is often spoken of as “real” music, a music that somehow taps into the heart of America; in this book, Peterson shows that what “real” (or “authentic”) means has changed over time, from the music’s early hillbilly days to the present, when “real” country musicians wear cowboy hats.
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Creating Country Music is a fascinating look behind the scenes of country music, showing that what’s “authentic” is actually, in a sense, quite artificial. After reading this book, you’ll spend a lot less time worrying about whether a French restaurant, or a dance troupe, or anything is “authentic.” What counts as “authentic,” Peterson shows, is whatever people happen to decide is “authentic” at any given time.
Katherine Newman: No
Shame in My Game
Katherine Newman is a preeminent qualitative sociologist — not that she’s a slouch in the quantitative department. In this book, she tells the stories of the working poor: people who work sometimes grueling jobs but still have a hard time getting ahead. Sitting behind the counter at McDonald’s and talking with the people who work there may not seem like the most complicated thing to you — unless you’ve done it, or unless you’ve read Newman’s book. As Whyte did in Street Corner Society, Newman reveals a complex world of pride, prejudice, struggle, and success among a group of people who are often ignored or dismissed by those who benefit from their labor.
Each of these books will teach you different things about people from different walks of life, but I’ll tip you off as to one of the main lessons to be learned from each of these books: don’t assume that you understand someone until you’ve walked in their shoes. By getting up close and personal (or, in some cases, down and dirty) with their subjects, sociologists repeatedly discover that choices (for example, working at McDonald’s — or not working at McDonald’s) that seem hard to understand actually make a lot of sense to the people who are making them.
Chapter 18
Ten Ways to Use Sociological Insight in Everyday Life
In This Chapter
Using sociology to gain a new perspective on your own life
Understanding how sociology affects your daily life
What’s the point of studying sociology? For passing sociology tests, sure. For creating social policy, yes. But for your life, when you’re not
in a sociology class or writing laws? You bet!
Sociology is useful because it can change the way you think about the world. When you understand how sociologists think about the social world and what they’ve discovered, you may find that sociology gives you a new way to understand the people and situations around you.
In this chapter, I list ten ways that you can use sociological insight to influence your life. In some ways, sociology can help you accomplish tasks or meet goals. In other ways, it can help you know what to worry about and what not to worry about. And, of course, it can simply help you make sense of confusing situations. The more you know about sociology, the more you know about yourself and the world around you.
Sometimes, understanding these situations through a sociological lens is like a light bulb turning on: You suddenly see everything in a new light. In other cases, you may be inspired to read further about a particular topic — or perhaps even to conduct your own sociological research on that topic! There’s a huge body of sociological literature in libraries and online, but with a subject as complex as society, there’s always room for more.