books tagged “sociology”

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Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
by Neil Postman

ISBN 014303653X (0-14-303653-X)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Book summary:
A brilliant powerful and important book....This is a brutal indictment Postman has laid down and, so far as I can see, an irrefutable one. --Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World. [via]
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Basic Concepts in Sociology
by Max Weber, H.P. Secher

ISBN 0806503041 (0-8065-0304-1)
Softcover, Kensington Pub Corp

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Book summary:
Basic Concepts In Sociology is one of the central texts in the field of sociology, and if anyone can be called the godfather of the subject, it is Weber. As relevant today as it was in its first publication in the 1930s, this is essential reading for students and teachers.
[via]
More editions of Basic Concepts in Sociology:
- Basic Concepts in Sociology: ISBN 0806503041 (0-8065-0304-1)
  Softcover, Kensington Pub Corp
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Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
by Malcolm Gladwell

ISBN 0316010669 (0-316-01066-9)
Softcover, Little Brown & Co

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Book summary:
Blink is about the first two seconds of looking--the decisive glance that knows in an instant. Gladwell, the best-selling author of The Tipping Point, campaigns for snap judgments and mind reading with a gift for translating research into splendid storytelling. Building his case with scenes from a marriage, heart attack triage, speed dating, choking on the golf course, selling cars, and military maneuvers, he persuades readers to think small and focus on the meaning of "thin slices" of behavior. The key is to rely on our "adaptive unconscious"--a 24/7 mental valet--that provides us with instant and sophisticated information to warn of danger, read a stranger, or react to a new idea.
Gladwell includes caveats about leaping to conclusions: marketers can manipulate our first impressions, high arousal moments make us "mind blind," focusing on the wrong cue leaves us vulnerable to "the Warren Harding Effect" (i.e., voting for a handsome but hapless president). In a provocative chapter that exposes the "dark side of blink," he illuminates the failure of rapid cognition in the tragic stakeout and murder of Amadou Diallo in the Bronx. He underlines studies about autism, facial reading and cardio uptick to urge training that enhances high-stakes decision-making. In this brilliant, cage-rattling book, one can only wish for a thicker slice of Gladwell's ideas about what Blink Camp might look like. --Barbara Mackoff [via]
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Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There
by David Brooks

ISBN 0684853787 (0-684-85378-7)
Softcover, Touchstone Books

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Book summary:
It used to be pretty easy to distinguish between the bourgeois world of capitalism and the bohemian counterculture. The bourgeois worked for corporations, wore gray, and went to church. The bohemians were artists and intellectuals. Bohemians championed the values of the liberated 1960s; the bourgeois were the enterprising yuppies of the 1980s.
But now the bohemian and the bourgeois are all mixed up, as David Brooks explains in this brilliant description of upscale culture in America. It is hard to tell an espresso-sipping professor from a cappuccino-gulping banker. Laugh and sob as you read about the information age economy's new dominant class. Marvel at their attitudes toward morality, sex, work, and lifestyle, and at how the members of this new elite have combined the values of the countercultural sixties with those of the achieving eighties. These are the people who set the tone for society today, for you. They are bourgeois bohemians: Bobos.
Are you a Bobo?
Do you believe that spending $15,000 on a media center is vulgar, but that spending $15,000 on a slate shower stall is a sign that you are at one with the Zenlike rhythms of nature?
Does your newly renovated kitchen look like an aircraft hangar with plumbing? Did you select your new refrigerator on the grounds that mere freezing isn't cold enough?
Would you spend a little more for socially conscious toothpaste -- the kind that doesn't actually kill germs, it just asks them to leave?
Do you work for one of those hip, visionary software companies where everybody comes to work in hiking boots and glacier glasses, as if a 400-foot wall of ice were about to come sliding through the parking lot?
Do youthink your educational credentials are just as good as those of the shimmering couples on the "New York Times" weddings page?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, you are probably a member of today's new upper class. [via]
More editions of Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There:
- Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There: ISBN 0684853779 (0-684-85377-9)
  Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
- Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There: ISBN 0684853787 (0-684-85378-7)
  Softcover, Touchstone Books
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Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community
by Robert D. Putnam

ISBN 0743203046 (0-7432-0304-6)
Softcover, Touchstone Books

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Book summary:
Once we bowled in leagues, usually after work; but no longer. This seemingly small phenomenon symbolizes a significant social change that Robert Putnam has identified and describes in this brilliant volume, "Bowling Alone."
Drawing on vast new data from the Roper Social and Political Trends and the DDB Needham Life Style -- surveys that report in detail on Americans' changing behavior over the past twenty-five years -- Putnam shows how we have become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and social structures, whether the PTA, church, recreation clubs, political parties, or bowling leagues. Our shrinking access to the "social capital" that is the reward of communal activity and community sharing is a serious threat to our civic and personal health.
Putnam's groundbreaking work shows how social bonds are the most powerful predictor of life satisfaction. For example, he reports that getting married is the equivalent of quadrupling your income and attending a club meeting regularly is the equivalent of doubling your income. The loss of social capital is felt in critical ways: Communities with less social capital have lower educational performance and more teen pregnancy, child suicide, low birth weight, and prenatal mortality. Social capital is also a strong predictor of crime rates and other measures of neighborhood quality of life, as it is of our health: In quantitative terms, if you both smoke and belong to no groups, it's a close call as to which is the riskier behavior.
A hundred years ago, at the turn of the last century, America's stock of social capital was at an ebb, reduced by urbanization, industrialization, and vast immigration thatuprooted Americans from their friends, social institutions, and families, a situation similar to today's. Faced with this challenge, the country righted itself. Within a few decades, a range of organizations was created, from the Red Cross, Boy Scouts, and YWCA to Hadassah and the Knights of Columbus and the Urban League. With these and many more cooperative societies we rebuilt our social capital.
We can learn from the experience of those decades, Putnam writes, as we work to rebuild our eroded social capital. It won't happen without the concerted creativity and energy of Americans nationwide.
Like defining works from the past that have endured -- such as "The Lonely Crowd" and "The Affluent Society" -- and like C. Wright Mills, Richard Hofstadter, Betty Friedan, David Riesman, Jane Jacobs, Rachel Carson, and Theodore Roszak, Putnam has identified a central crisis at the heart of our society and suggests what we can do. [via]
More editions of Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community:
- Bowling Alone : The Collapse and Revival of American Community: ISBN 0684832836 (0-684-83283-6)
  Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
- Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community: ISBN 0743203046 (0-7432-0304-6)
  Softcover, Touchstone Books
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Class
by Paul Fussell

ISBN 0345318161 (0-345-31816-1)
Softcover, Ballantine Books

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Book summary:
In Class Paul Fussell explodes the sacred American myth of social equality with eagle-eyed irreverence and iconoclastic wit. This bestselling, superbly researched, exquisitely observed guide to the signs, symbols, and customs of the American class system is always outrageously on the mark as Fussell shows us how our status is revealed by everything we do, say, and own. He describes the houses, objects, artifacts, speech, clothing styles, and intellectual proclivities of American classes from the top to the bottom and everybody -- you'll surely recognize yourself -- in between. Class is guaranteed to amuse and infuriate, whether your class is so high it's out of sight (literally) or you are, alas, a sinking victim of prole drift [via]
More editions of Class:
- Class: ISBN 0345318161 (0-345-31816-1)
  Softcover, Ballantine Books
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Class: A Guide Through the American Status System
by Paul Fussell, Martim De Avillez

ISBN 0671792253 (0-671-79225-3)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster

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Book summary:
In Class Paul Fussell explodes the sacred American myth of social equality with eagle-eyed irreverence and iconoclastic wit. This bestselling, superbly researched, exquisitely observed guide to the signs, symbols, and customs of the American class system is always outrageously on the mark as Fussell shows us how our status is revealed by everything we do, say, and own. He describes the houses, objects, artifacts, speech, clothing styles, and intellectual proclivities of American classes from the top to the bottom and everybody -- you'll surely recognize yourself -- in between. Class is guaranteed to amuse and infuriate, whether your class is so high it's out of sight (literally) or you are, alas, a sinking victim of prole drift. [via]
More editions of Class: A Guide Through the American Status System:
- Class: A Guide Through the American Status System: ISBN 0671449915 (0-671-44991-5)
  Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
- Class: A Guide Through the American Status System: ISBN 0671792253 (0-671-79225-3)
  Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail Or Succeed
by Jared Diamond

ISBN 0143036556 (0-14-303655-6)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Book summary:
Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed is the glass-half-empty follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel. While Guns, Germs, and Steel explained the geographic and environmental reasons why some human populations have flourished, Collapse uses the same factors to examine why ancient societies, including the Anasazi of the American Southwest and the Viking colonies of Greenland, as well as modern ones such as Rwanda, have fallen apart. Not every collapse has an environmental origin, but an eco-meltdown is often the main catalyst, he argues, particularly when combined with society's response to (or disregard for) the coming disaster. Still, right from the outset of Collapse, the author makes clear that this is not a mere environmentalist's diatribe. He begins by setting the book's main question in the small communities of present-day Montana as they face a decline in living standards and a depletion of natural resources. Once-vital mines now leak toxins into the soil, while prion diseases infect some deer and elk and older hydroelectric dams have become decrepit. On all these issues, and particularly with the hot-button topic of logging and wildfires, Diamond writes with equanimity.
Because he's addressing such significant issues within a vast span of time, Diamond can occasionally speak too briefly and assume too much, and at times his shorthand remarks may cause careful readers to raise an eyebrow. But in general, Diamond provides fine and well-reasoned historical examples, making the case that many times, economic and environmental concerns are one and the same. With Collapse, Diamond hopes to jog our collective memory to keep us from falling for false analogies or forgetting prior experiences, and thereby save us from potential devastations to come. While it might seem a stretch to use medieval Greenland and the Maya to convince a skeptic about the seriousness of global warming, it's exactly this type of cross-referencing that makes Collapse so compelling. --Jennifer Buckendorff [via]
More editions of Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail Or Succeed:
- Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail Or Succeed: ISBN 0670033375 (0-670-03337-5)
  Hardcover, Penguin Group USA
- Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: ISBN 0143036556 (0-14-303655-6)
  Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things
by Barry Glassner

ISBN 0465014909 (0-465-01490-9)
Softcover, Perseus Books Group

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Book summary:
Americans are afraid of many things that shouldn't frighten them, writes Barry Glassner in this book devoted to exploding conventional wisdom. Thanks to opportunistic politicians, single-minded advocacy groups, and unscrupulous TV "newsmagazines," people must unlearn their many misperceptions about the world around them. The youth homicide rate, for instance, has dropped by as much as 30 percent in recent years, says Glassner--and up to three times as many people are struck dead by lightening than die by violence in schools. "False and overdrawn fears only cause hardship," he writes. In fact, one study shows that daughters of women with breast cancer are actually less likely to conduct self-examinations--probably because the campaign to increase awareness of the ailment also inadvertently heightens fears.
Although some sections are stronger than others, The Culture of Fear's examination of many nonproblems--such as "road rage," "Internet addiction," and airline safety--is very good. Glassner also has a sharp eye for what causes unnecessary goose bumps: "The use of poignant anecdotes in place of scientific evidence, the christening of isolated incidents as trends, depictions of entire categories of people as innately dangerous," and unknown scholars who masquerade as "experts." Although Glassner rejects the notion that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, he certainly shows we have much less to fear than we think. And isn't that sort of scary? --John J. Miller [via]
More editions of Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things:
- Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things: ISBN 0465014895 (0-465-01489-5)
  Hardcover, Perseus Books Group
- Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things: ISBN 0465014909 (0-465-01490-9)
  Softcover, Perseus Books Group
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The Death and Life of Great American Cities
by Jane Jacobs

ISBN 067974195X (0-679-74195-X)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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Book summary:
Jane Jacobs sets out to produce an attack on current city-planning and rebuilding in America and to introduce new principles by which these should be governed. Throughout the post-war period, planners temperamentally unsympathetic to cities have been let loose on the urban environment. Inspired by the ideals of the Garden City or Le Corbusier's Radiant City, they have dreamt up ambitious projects based on self-contained neighbourhoods, super-blocks, rigid "scientific" plans and endless acres of grass. Yet they seldom stop to look at what actually works on the ground. The real vitality of cities, argues Jacobs, lies in their diversity, architectural variety, teeming street life and human scale. It is only when we appreciate such fundamental realities that we can hope to create cities that are safe, interesting and economically viable, as well as places that people want to live in. [via]
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Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison
by Michel Foucault, Alan Sheridan

ISBN 0679752552 (0-679-75255-2)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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In this brilliant work, the most influential philosopher since Sartre suggests that such vaunted reforms as the abolition of torture and the emergence of the modern penitentiary have merely shifted the focus of punishment from the prisoner's body to his soul. [via]
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The Elementary Forms of Religious Life
by Emile Durkheim, Carol Cosman, Mark S. Cladis

ISBN 0192832557 (0-19-283255-7)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr

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In The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912), Emile Durkheim sets himself the task of discovering the enduring source of human social identity. He investigates what he considered to be the simplest form of documented religion - totemism among the Aborigines of Australia. For Durkheim, studying Aboriginal religion was a way 'to yield an understanding of the religious nature of man, by showing us an essential and permanent aspect of humanity'. The need and capacity of men and women to relate to one another socially lies at the heart of Durkheim's exploration, in which religion embodies the beliefs that shape our moral universe.
The Elementary Forms has been applauded and debated by sociologists, anthropologists, ethnographers, philosophers, and theologians, and continues to speak to new generations about the intriguing origin and nature of religion and society. This new, lightly abridged edition provides an excellent introduction to Durkheim's ideas. [via]
More editions of The Elementary Forms of Religious Life:
- The Elementary Forms of Religious Life: ISBN 0192832557 (0-19-283255-7)
  Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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Essays in Economic Sociology
by Max Weber, Richard Swedberg

ISBN 0691009066 (0-691-00906-6)
Hardcover, Princeton Univ Pr

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Book summary:
The writings of Max Weber (1864-1920) contain one of the most fascinating and sophisticated attempts ever made to create an economic sociology. Economic sociologist and Weber scholar Richard Swedberg has selected the most important of Weber's enormous body of writings on the topic, making these available for the first time in a single volume. The central themes around which the anthology is organized are modern capitalism and its relationships to politics, to law, and to culture and religion; a special section is devoted to theoretical aspects of economic sociology. Swedberg provides a valuable introduction illuminating biographical and intellectual dimensions of Weber's work in economic sociology, as well as a glossary defining key concepts in Weber's work in the field and a bibliographical guide to this corpus.
Weber's substantive views on economic sociology are represented in this volume through crucial excerpts from works such as his General Economic History and The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, but the reader can follow his attempt to construct a conceptual foundation for economic sociology in Economy and Society as well. Also included is Weber's celebrated inaugural lecture, "The Freiburg Address," along with a number of central but hitherto inaccessible writings. Though written nearly a century ago, Weber's work has the quality of a true classic, and the reader will find many ideas in his writings on economic topics that remain applicable in today's world. These include Weber's discussion of what is now called social capital, his analysis of the institutions needed for a well-functioning capitalist economy, and his more general attempt to introduce social structure into economic analysis. As this volume demonstrates, what basically motivated Weber to work with economic sociology was a realization shared by many economists and sociologists today: that the analysis of economic phenomena must include an understanding of the social dimension. Guided by volume editor Swedberg, the reader of this anthology discovers the significance and the enduring relevance of Weber's contribution to economic sociology.
[via]
More editions of Essays in Economic Sociology:
- Essays in Economic Sociology: ISBN 0691009066 (0-691-00906-6)
  Hardcover, Princeton Univ Pr
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Fast Food Nation
by Eric Schlosser

ISBN 0618130977 (0-618-13097-7)
Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin College Div

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On any given day, one out of four Americans opts for a quick and cheap meal at a fast-food restaurant, without giving either its speed or its thriftiness a second thought. Fast food is so ubiquitous that it now seems as American, and harmless, as apple pie. But the industry's drive for consolidation, homogenization, and speed has radically transformed America's diet, landscape, economy, and workforce, often in insidiously destructive ways. Eric Schlosser, an award-winning journalist, opens his ambitious and ultimately devastating exposé with an introduction to the iconoclasts and high school dropouts, such as Harlan Sanders and the McDonald brothers, who first applied the principles of a factory assembly line to a commercial kitchen. Quickly, however, he moves behind the counter with the overworked and underpaid teenage workers, onto the factory farms where the potatoes and beef are grown, and into the slaughterhouses run by giant meatpacking corporations. Schlosser wants you to know why those French fries taste so good (with a visit to the world's largest flavor company) and "what really lurks between those sesame-seed buns." Eater beware: forget your concerns about cholesterol, there is--literally--feces in your meat.
Schlosser's investigation reaches its frightening peak in the meatpacking plants as he reveals the almost complete lack of federal oversight of a seemingly lawless industry. His searing portrayal of the industry is disturbingly similar to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, written in 1906: nightmare working conditions, union busting, and unsanitary practices that introduce E. coli and other pathogens into restaurants, public schools, and homes. Almost as disturbing is his description of how the industry "both feeds and feeds off the young," insinuating itself into all aspects of children's lives, even the pages of their school books, while leaving them prone to obesity and disease. Fortunately, Schlosser offers some eminently practical remedies. "Eating in the United States should no longer be a form of high-risk behavior," he writes. Where to begin? Ask yourself, is the true cost of having it "your way" really worth it? --Lesley Reed [via]
More editions of Fast Food Nation:
- Fast Food Nation: ISBN 0618130977 (0-618-13097-7)
  Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin College Div
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Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
by Eric Schlosser

ISBN 0060838582 (0-06-083858-2)
Softcover, Harpercollins

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Book summary:
On any given day, one out of four Americans opts for a quick and cheap meal at a fast-food restaurant, without giving either its speed or its thriftiness a second thought. Fast food is so ubiquitous that it now seems as American, and harmless, as apple pie. But the industry's drive for consolidation, homogenization, and speed has radically transformed America's diet, landscape, economy, and workforce, often in insidiously destructive ways. Eric Schlosser, an award-winning journalist, opens his ambitious and ultimately devastating exposé with an introduction to the iconoclasts and high school dropouts, such as Harlan Sanders and the McDonald brothers, who first applied the principles of a factory assembly line to a commercial kitchen. Quickly, however, he moves behind the counter with the overworked and underpaid teenage workers, onto the factory farms where the potatoes and beef are grown, and into the slaughterhouses run by giant meatpacking corporations. Schlosser wants you to know why those French fries taste so good (with a visit to the world's largest flavor company) and "what really lurks between those sesame-seed buns." Eater beware: forget your concerns about cholesterol, there is--literally--feces in your meat.
Schlosser's investigation reaches its frightening peak in the meatpacking plants as he reveals the almost complete lack of federal oversight of a seemingly lawless industry. His searing portrayal of the industry is disturbingly similar to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, written in 1906: nightmare working conditions, union busting, and unsanitary practices that introduce E. coli and other pathogens into restaurants, public schools, and homes. Almost as disturbing is his description of how the industry "both feeds and feeds off the young," insinuating itself into all aspects of children's lives, even the pages of their school books, while leaving them prone to obesity and disease. Fortunately, Schlosser offers some eminently practical remedies. "Eating in the United States should no longer be a form of high-risk behavior," he writes. Where to begin? Ask yourself, is the true cost of having it "your way" really worth it? --Lesley Reed [via]
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Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
by Stephen J. Dubner, Steven D. Levitt

ISBN 0061245135 (0-06-124513-5)
Softcover, Harpercollins

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Economics is not widely considered to be one of the sexier sciences. The annual Nobel Prize winner in that field never receives as much publicity as his or her compatriots in peace, literature, or physics. But if such slights are based on the notion that economics is dull, or that economists are concerned only with finance itself, Steven D. Levitt will change some minds. In Freakonomics (written with Stephen J. Dubner), Levitt argues that many apparent mysteries of everyday life don't need to be so mysterious: They could be illuminated and made even more fascinating by asking the right questions and drawing connections. For example, Levitt traces the drop in violent crime rates to a drop in violent criminals and, digging further, to the Roe v. Wade decision that preempted the existence of some people who would be born to poverty and hardship. Elsewhere, by analyzing data gathered from innercity Chicago drug-dealing gangs, Levitt outlines a corporate structure much like McDonald's, where the top bosses make great money while scores of underlings make something below minimum wage. And in a section that may alarm or relieve worried parents, Levitt argues that parenting methods don't really matter much and that a backyard swimming pool is much more dangerous than a gun. These enlightening chapters are separated by effusive passages from Dubner's 2003 profile of Levitt in The New York Times Magazine, which led to the book being written. In a book filled with bold logic, such back-patting veers Freakonomics, however briefly, away from what Levitt actually has to say. Although maybe there's a good economic reason for that too, and we're just not getting it yet. --John Moe

Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner Answer The Amazon.com Significant Seven
Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, author and co-author of this season's bestselling quirky hit, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, graciously answered the Amazon.com Significant Seven questions that we like to run by every author.

Levitt and Dubner answer the Amazon.com Significant Seven questions
[via]
More editions of Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything:
- Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything: ISBN 0061234001 (0-06-123400-1)
  Hardcover, Harpercollins
- Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything: ISBN 0061245135 (0-06-124513-5)
  Softcover, Harpercollins
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Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner

ISBN 006089637X (0-06-089637-X)
Softcover, HarperCollins Canada, Limited

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Book summary:
Economics is not widely considered to be one of the sexier sciences. The annual Nobel Prize winner in that field never receives as much publicity as his or her compatriots in peace, literature, or physics. But if such slights are based on the notion that economics is dull, or that economists are concerned only with finance itself, Steven D. Levitt will change some minds. In Freakonomics (written with Stephen J. Dubner), Levitt argues that many apparent mysteries of everyday life don't need to be so mysterious: They could be illuminated and made even more fascinating by asking the right questions and drawing connections. For example, Levitt traces the drop in violent crime rates to a drop in violent criminals and, digging further, to the Roe v. Wade decision that preempted the existence of some people who would be born to poverty and hardship. Elsewhere, by analyzing data gathered from innercity Chicago drug-dealing gangs, Levitt outlines a corporate structure much like McDonald's, where the top bosses make great money while scores of underlings make something below minimum wage. And in a section that may alarm or relieve worried parents, Levitt argues that parenting methods don't really matter much and that a backyard swimming pool is much more dangerous than a gun. These enlightening chapters are separated by effusive passages from Dubner's 2003 profile of Levitt in The New York Times Magazine, which led to the book being written. In a book filled with bold logic, such back-patting veers Freakonomics, however briefly, away from what Levitt actually has to say. Although maybe there's a good economic reason for that too, and we're just not getting it yet. --John Moe

Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner Answer The Amazon.com Significant Seven
Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, author and co-author of this season's bestselling quirky hit, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, graciously answered the Amazon.com Significant Seven questions that we like to run by every author.

Levitt and Dubner answer the Amazon.com Significant Seven questions
[via]
More editions of Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything:
- Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything: ISBN 006073132X (0-06-073132-X)
  Hardcover, HarperCollins Publishers
- Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything: ISBN 006089637X (0-06-089637-X)
  Softcover, HarperCollins Canada, Limited
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Freakonomics Intl Pb: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
by Stephen J. Dubner, Steven D. Levitt

ISBN 0061131326 (0-06-113132-6)
Hardcover, Harpercollins

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More editions of Freakonomics Intl Pb: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything:
- Freakonomics Intl Pb: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything: ISBN 0061131326 (0-06-113132-6)
  Hardcover, Harpercollins
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From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology
by Max Weber

ISBN 0195004620 (0-19-500462-0)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr

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Book summary:
Max Weber (1864-1920) was one of the most prolific and influential sociologists of the twentieth century. This classic collection draws together his key papers. This edition contains a new preface by Professor Bryan S. Turner. [via]
More editions of From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology:
- From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology: ISBN 0415060567 (0-415-06056-7)
  Softcover, Routledge
- From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology: ISBN 0195004620 (0-19-500462-0)
  Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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Guns, Germs & Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
by Jared Diamond

ISBN 0393317552 (0-393-31755-2)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:
With a new chapter. The phenomenal bestseller; over 1.5 million copies sold; is now a major PBS special.Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Guns, Germs, and Steel is a brilliant work answering the question of why the peoples of certain continents succeeded in invading other continents and conquering or displacing their peoples. This edition includes a new chapter on Japan and all-new illustrations drawn from the television series. Until around 11,000 BC, all peoples were still Stone Age hunter/gatherers. At that point, a great divide occurred in the rates that human societies evolved. In Eurasia, parts of the Americas, and Africa, farming became the prevailing mode of existence when indigenous wild plants and animals were domesticated by prehistoric planters and herders. As Jared Diamond vividly reveals, the very people who gained a head start in producing food would collide with preliterate cultures, shaping the modern world through conquest, displacement, and genocide.The paths that lead from scattered centers of food to broad bands of settlement had a great deal to do with climate and geography. But how did differences in societies arise? Why weren't native Australians, Americans, or Africans the ones to colonize Europe? Diamond dismantles pernicious racial theories tracing societal differences to biological differences. He assembles convincing evidence linking germs to domestication of animals, germs that Eurasians then spread in epidemic proportions in their voyages of discovery. In its sweep, Guns, Germs and Steel encompasses the rise of agriculture, technology, writing, government, and religion, providing a unifying theory of human history as intriguing as the histories of dinosaurs and glaciers. 32 illustrations [via]
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Guns, Germs, and Steel Reader's Companion
by Jared Diamond

ISBN 1586638637 (1-58663-863-7)
Softcover, Sterling Pub Co Inc

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Book summary:
Scholar and professor Jared Diamond made a huge splash with this fascinating but controversial book, which argues that geography and environment have almost singlehandedly determined the course of human history. Dig deeper into his contentions with the information inside this invaluable reader's handbook:
- Why did Europe colonize Africa and Asia rather than the other way around?
- Why is geography the most important factor in human history?
- How has the rest of the scientific community received Diamond's theory?
[via]
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- Guns, Germs, and Steel Reader's Companion: ISBN 1586638637 (1-58663-863-7)
  Softcover, Sterling Pub Co Inc
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Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America
by Barbara Ehrenreich

ISBN 1587243687 (1-58724-368-7)
Hardcover, Wheeler Pub Inc

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Book summary:
Essayist and cultural critic Barbara Ehrenreich has always specialized in turning received wisdom on its head with intelligence, clarity, and verve. With some 12 million women being pushed into the labor market by welfare reform, she decided to do some good old-fashioned journalism and find out just how they were going to survive on the wages of the unskilled--at $6 to $7 an hour, only half of what is considered a living wage. So she did what millions of Americans do, she looked for a job and a place to live, worked that job, and tried to make ends meet.
As a waitress in Florida, where her name is suddenly transposed to "girl," trailer trash becomes a demographic category to aspire to with rent at $675 per month. In Maine, where she ends up working as both a cleaning woman and a nursing home assistant, she must first fill out endless pre-employment tests with trick questions such as "Some people work better when they're a little bit high." In Minnesota, she works at Wal-Mart under the repressive surveillance of men and women whose job it is to monitor her behavior for signs of sloth, theft, drug abuse, or worse. She even gets to experience the humiliation of the urine test.
So, do the poor have survival strategies unknown to the middle class? And did Ehrenreich feel the "bracing psychological effects of getting out of the house, as promised by the wonks who brought us welfare reform?" Nah. Even in her best-case scenario, with all the advantages of education, health, a car, and money for first month's rent, she has to work two jobs, seven days a week, and still almost winds up in a shelter. As Ehrenreich points out with her potent combination of humor and outrage, the laws of supply and demand have been reversed. Rental prices skyrocket, but wages never rise. Rather, jobs are so cheap as measured by the pay that workers are encouraged to take as many as they can. Behind those trademark Wal-Mart vests, it turns out, are the borderline homeless. With her characteristic wry wit and her unabashedly liberal bent, Ehrenreich brings the invisible poor out of hiding and, in the process, the world they inhabit--where civil liberties are often ignored and hard work fails to live up to its reputation as the ticket out of poverty. --Lesley Reed [via]
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Power, Politics and People the Collected Essays of C. Wright Mills
by C. W. Mills

ISBN 0195007522 (0-19-500752-2)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr

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- Power, Politics and People the Collected Essays of C. Wright Mills: ISBN 0195007522 (0-19-500752-2)
  Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
by Erving Goffman

ISBN 0385094027 (0-385-09402-7)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group

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Book summary:
In what the General Practitioner called 'this intelligent searching work', the author of "Stigma" and "Asylums" presents an analysis of the structures of social encounters from the perspective of the dramatic performance. He shows us exactly how people use such 'fixed props' as houses, clothes, and job situations; how they combine in teams resembling secret societies; and, how they adopt discrepant roles and communicate out of character. Professor Goffman takes us 'backstage' too, into the regions where people both prepare their images and relax from them; and he demonstrates in painful detail what can happen when a performance falls flat. [via]
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The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (Cram 101)
by Cram 101

ISBN 1428815880 (1-4288-1588-0)
Softcover, Academic Internet Pub Inc

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Book summary:
Never HIGHLIGHT a Book Again! Virtually all testable terms, concepts, persons, places, and events are included. Cram101 Textbook Outlines gives all of the outlines, highlights, notes for your textbook with optional online practice tests. Only Cram101 Outlines are Textbook Specific. Cram101 is NOT the Textbook. Accompanys: 9780716746478 [via]
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  Softcover, Academic Internet Pub Inc
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The Protestant Ethic and the 'Spirit' of Capitalism and Other Writings
by Peter R. Baehr, Max Weber, Gordon C. Wells

ISBN 0140439218 (0-14-043921-8)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Book summary:
In The Protestant Ethic, Max Weber opposes the Marxist concept of dialectical materialism and relates the rise of the capitalist economy to the Calvinist belief in the moral value of hard work and the fulfillment of one's worldly duties. Based on the original 1905 edition, this volume includes, along with Weber's treatise, an illuminating introduction, a wealth of explanatory notes, and exemplary responses and remarks-both from Weber and his critics-sparked by publication of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. This is the first English translation of the 1905 German text and the first volume to include Weber's unexpurgated responses to his critics, which reveal important developments in and clarifications of Weber's argument. [via]
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- The Protestant Ethic and the 'Spirit' of Capitalism and Other Writings: ISBN 0140439218 (0-14-043921-8)
  Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
by Max Weber, Stephen Kalberg

ISBN 1579583385 (1-57958-338-5)
Hardcover, Fitzroy Dearborn Pub

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Book summary:
A new translation of Max Webers classic The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism--one of the most enduring and influential books in sociology--is now available from Roxbury.

Translator Stephen Kalberg is an internationally acclaimed Weberian scholar. In this Third Roxbury Edition, Kalberg offers a precise and nuanced rendering of The Protestant Ethic that captures Webers style as well as the unusual subtlety of his descriptions and causal arguments. Kalbergs standardization of Webers terminology facilitates understanding of the various twists and turns in his complex lines of reasoning. Webers original italicization, highlighting major themes, has been restored. A glossary of major terms and numerous clarifying endnotes have been added; foreign terms have been translated; bracketed insertions in the text identify obscure names. In short, the Protestant Ethic thesis is presented in a clear and highly readable manner.

There are three compelling reasons for students to read this classic:

It explores the continuing debate regarding the origins and legacy of modern capitalism in the West.
It helps the reader better understand economic development today around the world, especially in Russia, Eastern Europe, Asia, and South America.
It plumbs the deep cultural forces that affect contemporary work life and the workplace in the United States and Europe.
In his introduction, Kalberg offers a sketch of Webers life and his major concerns, examines the intellectual context at the time The Protestant Ethic was written, and summarizes major aspects of Webers complex analysis. Kalberg also discusses this classical study in the context of Webers other writings. Finally, Kalberg investigates the contribution of The Protestant Ethic for understanding the role played by cultural forces in modern economic development.
The new translation includes Webers 1906 essay "The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism." Written after his extensive travels in the United States in 1904, Weber comments here on the diverse ways in which the legacies of early American Protestantism remain influential. Also contained in this edition are Webers masterful prefatory remarks to his Collected Essays in the Sociology of Religion, in which he defines the uniqueness of Western societies and asks what "ideas and interests" combined to call forth modern Western rationalism.
For students, The Protestant Ethic is a starting point toward understanding the multiple dimensions of social change. The continuing debates about the main elements of modern life, economic cultures and business ethics, our "common sense" economic determinism and "rational choices," the future of modern capitalism, the relationship between cultural forces and social structures, and the tension between science and religion are very much part of the Weberian project. Small wonder, then, that The Protestant Ethic continues to be one of the most frequently assigned readings in sociology.
Translator Stephen Kalberg is the author of Max Webers Comparative-Historical Sociology (1994), Max Webers Sociology of Civilizations, and numerous articles on Weber. He is the editor of Max Weber: The Confrontation with Modernity (2003l). He teaches at Boston University, where he is Associate Professor of Sociology. He is also co-chair of the German Study Group at Harvard University's Center for European Studies. [via]
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The Protestant Ethic And the Spirit of Capitalism
by Gilbert Geis, Max Weber

ISBN 1933220368 (1-933220-36-8)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr

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  Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
by Talcott Parsons, Max Weber

ISBN 048642703X (0-486-42703-X)
Softcover, Dover Pubns

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Book summary:
This brilliant study opposes the Marxist concept of dialectical materialism and its view that change takes place through the conflict of opposites. Instead, Weber relates the rise of a capitalist economy to the Puritan determination to work out anxiety over salvation or damnation by performing good deeds an effort that ultimately encouraged capitalism.
[via]
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  Softcover, Dover Pubns
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The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge
by Peter L. Berger

ISBN 0385058985 (0-385-05898-5)
Softcover, Doubleday

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Book summary:
This book reformulates the sociological subdiscipline known as the sociology of knowledge. Knowledge is presented as more than ideology, including as well false consciousness, propaganda, science and art. [via]
More editions of The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge:
- The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge: ISBN 0891975780 (0-89197-578-0)
  Hardcover, Ardent Media Inc
- The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge: ISBN 0385058985 (0-385-05898-5)
  Softcover, Doubleday
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The Sociological Imagination
by Charles Wright Mills

ISBN 0195133730 (0-19-513373-0)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr

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Book summary:
This highly acclaimed study of the social sciences critiques the ascendant "schools" of sociology in this country and reassesses the tradition of classic sociological analysis. [via]
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- The Sociological Imagination: ISBN 0195007514 (0-19-500751-4)
  Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
- The Sociological Imagination: ISBN 0195133730 (0-19-513373-0)
  Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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Suicide: A Study in Sociology
by Emile Durkheim

ISBN 0684836327 (0-684-83632-7)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster

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Book summary:
One of Durkheim's most important works, serving as a model in social theory. [via]
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- Suicide: A Study in Sociology: ISBN 0684836327 (0-684-83632-7)
  Softcover, Simon & Schuster
Television and the Teaching of English
by Neil Postman

ISBN 0891974458 (0-89197-445-8)
Softcover, Ardent Media Inc

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- Television and the Teaching of English: ISBN 0891974458 (0-89197-445-8)
  Softcover, Ardent Media Inc
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Theory of the Leisure Class
by Thorstein Veblen

ISBN 1419185098 (1-4191-8509-8)
Softcover, Kessinger Pub Co

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Book summary:
"The Theory of the Leisure Class" is a classic examination of the economics of the upper classes and the impact that their habits have upon society. In this work Thorstein Veblen coins the phrase "conspicuous consumption" to describe the often wasteful and unnecessary use of resources that is typical of the wealthiest members of a society. Veblen argues that the social values of the rich have greatly contributed to a lack of substantive culture and proper use of wealth in our society. "The Theory of the Leisure Class" is a classic of economics and sociology that is as relevant today as when it was first written. [via]
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The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions
by Thorstein Veblen

ISBN 1573922196 (1-57392-219-6)
Softcover, Prometheus Books

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Book summary:
Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929), the controversial American economist and social critic, argues that economics is essentially a study of the economic aspects of human culture, which are in a constant state of flux. In his best-known work, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), Veblen appropriated Darwin's theory of evolution to analyze the modern industrial system.

While industry itself demanded diligence, efficiency, and cooperation, businessmen in opposition to engineers and industrialists were only interested in making money and displaying their wealth in what Veblen coined "conspicuous consumption." Veblen's keen analysis of the psychological bases of American social and economic institutions laid the foundation for the school of institutional economics. [via]
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- The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions: ISBN 1573922196 (1-57392-219-6)
  Softcover, Prometheus Books
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
by Malcolm Gladwell

ISBN 0316346624 (0-316-34662-4)
Softcover, Back Bay Books

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Book summary:
"The best way to understand the dramatic transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life," writes Malcolm Gladwell, "is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do." Although anyone familiar with the theory of memetics will recognize this concept, Gladwell's The Tipping Point has quite a few interesting twists on the subject.
For example, Paul Revere was able to galvanize the forces of resistance so effectively in part because he was what Gladwell calls a "Connector": he knew just about everybody, particularly the revolutionary leaders in each of the towns that he rode through. But Revere "wasn't just the man with the biggest Rolodex in colonial Boston," he was also a "Maven" who gathered extensive information about the British. He knew what was going on and he knew exactly whom to tell. The phenomenon continues to this day--think of how often you've received information in an e-mail message that had been forwarded at least half a dozen times before reaching you.
Gladwell develops these and other concepts (such as the "stickiness" of ideas or the effect of population size on information dispersal) through simple, clear explanations and entertainingly illustrative anecdotes, such as comparing the pedagogical methods of Sesame Street and Blue's Clues, or explaining why it would be even easier to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with the actor Rod Steiger. Although some readers may find the transitional passages between chapters hold their hands a little too tightly, and Gladwell's closing invocation of the possibilities of social engineering sketchy, even chilling, The Tipping Point is one of the most effective books on science for a general audience in ages. It seems inevitable that "tipping point," like "future shock" or "chaos theory," will soon become one of those ideas that everybody knows--or at least knows by name. --Ron Hogan [via]
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The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
by Eric Hoffer

ISBN 0809436035 (0-8094-3603-5)
Softcover, Time-Life Books

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Book summary:
[Eric Hoffer] is a student of extraordinary perception and insight. The range of his reading and research is vast, amazing. [The True Believer is] one of the most provocative books of our immediate day.Christian Science Monitor
The famous bestseller with concise insight into what drives the mind of the fanatic and the dynamics of a mass movement (Wall St. Journal) by Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Eric Hoffer, The True Believer is a landmark in the field of social psychology, and even more relevant today than ever before in history. Called a brilliant and original inquiry and a genuine contribution to our social thought by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., The True Believer is mandatory reading for anyone interested in the machinations by which an individual becomes a fanatic.
[via]
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The Wisdom Of Crowds
by James Surowiecki, Surowiecki, James (AFT)

ISBN 0385721706 (0-385-72170-6)
Softcover, Anchor Books

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Book summary:
In this fascinating book, New Yorker business columnist James Surowiecki explores a deceptively simple idea: Large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliantbetter at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future.

With boundless erudition and in delightfully clear prose, Surowiecki ranges across fields as diverse as popular culture, psychology, ant biology, behavioral economics, artificial intelligence, military history, and politics to show how this simple idea offers important lessons for how we live our lives, select our leaders, run our companies, and think about our world. [via]
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- The Wisdom Of Crowds: ISBN 0385721706 (0-385-72170-6)
  Softcover, Anchor Books
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The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business,Economies, Societies and Nations
by James Surowiecki

ISBN 0385503865 (0-385-50386-5)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group

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Book summary:
No one in this world, so far as I know, has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. H. L. Mencken

H. L. Mencken was wrong.

In this endlessly fascinating book, New Yorker columnist James Surowiecki explores a deceptively simple idea that has profound implications: large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliantbetter at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future.

This seemingly counterintuitive notion has endless and major ramifications for how businesses operate, how knowledge is advanced, how economies are (or should be) organized and how we live our daily lives. With seemingly boundless erudition and in delightfully clear prose, Surowiecki ranges across fields as diverse as popular culture, psychology, ant biology, economic behaviorism, artificial intelligence, military history and political theory to show just how this principle operates in the real world.

Despite the sophistication of his arguments, Surowiecki presents them in a wonderfully entertaining manner. The examples he uses are all down-to-earth, surprising, and fun to ponder. Why is the line in which youre standing always the longest? Why is it that you can buy a screw anywhere in the world and it will fit a bolt bought ten-thousand miles away? Why is network television so awful? If you had to meet someone in Paris on a specific day but had no way of contacting them, when and where would you meet? Why are there traffic jams? Whats the best way to win money on a game show? Why, when you walk into a convenience store at 2:00 A.M. to buy a quart of orange juice, is it there waiting for you? What do Hollywood mafia movies have to teach us about why corporations exist?

The Wisdom of Crowds is a brilliant but accessible biography of an idea, one with important lessons for how we live our lives, select our leaders, conduct our business, and think about our world.
[via]
More editions of The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business,Economies, Societies and Nations:
- The Wisdom of Crowds : Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations: ISBN 0375433627 (0-375-43362-7)
  Hardcover, Random House Large Print
- The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business,Economies, Societies and Nations: ISBN 0385503865 (0-385-50386-5)
  Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group

Spanish

Armas, germenes y acero/ Guns, Germs and Steel
by Jared Diamond

ISBN 848306667X (84-8306-667-X)
Hardcover, Debate Editorial

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- Armas, germenes y acero/ Guns, Germs and Steel: ISBN 848306667X (84-8306-667-X)
  Hardcover, Debate Editorial
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Blink Inteligencia Intuitiva?/blink.: Por Que Sabemos La Verdad En Dos Segundos/ the Power of Thinking Without Thinking
by Malcolm Gladwell

ISBN 1598200879 (1-59820-087-9)
Softcover, Santillana USA Pub Co Inc

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Book summary:
In Blink, bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant ¯in the blink of an eye¯ that actually aren't as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? How do our brains really work - in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others? [via]
More editions of Blink Inteligencia Intuitiva?/blink.: Por Que Sabemos La Verdad En Dos Segundos/ the Power of Thinking Without Thinking:
- Blink Inteligencia Intuitiva?/blink.: Por Que Sabemos La Verdad En Dos Segundos/ the Power of Thinking Without Thinking: ISBN 1598200879 (1-59820-087-9)
  Softcover, Santillana USA Pub Co Inc
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Freakonomics: Un Economista Polfticamente Incorrecto Explora El Lado Oculta De Lo Que Nos Afecta
by Stephen J. Dubner, Steven D. Levitt

ISBN 8466625127 (84-666-2512-7)
Softcover, Ediciones B

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Book summary:
Presenting economics as the underlying connection between seemingly unrelated events or phenomena, this international bestseller establishes a new way of looking at the world. The authors explain the hidden side of everything, from violent crime, parenting, and baby names to the Ku Klux Klan and real estate, demonstrating how economics isn't just about numbers, but a study of incentiveshow people get what they need and want when others need and want the same thing.

Comprobando que el estudio de la economía puede explicar como se relacionan fenómenos distintos, este bestseller internacional establece una nueva manera de ver al mundo. Los autores explican el lado escondido de todo, desde crímenes violentos y nombres de bebes hasta el Ku Klux Klan y bienes raíces, demostrando que el estudio de la economía es un estudio de los incentivos: el modo en que las personas obtienen lo que desean o necesitan, especialmente cuando otras personas desean o necesitan lo mismo.
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More editions of Freakonomics: Un Economista Polfticamente Incorrecto Explora El Lado Oculta De Lo Que Nos Afecta:
- Freakonomics: Un Economista Polfticamente Incorrecto Explora El Lado Oculta De Lo Que Nos Afecta: ISBN 8466625127 (84-666-2512-7)
  Softcover, Ediciones B

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