Henslin's best-selling brief paperback text shares the excitement of sociology–its acclaimed “down-to-earth” approach and personal writing style highlight the sociology of everyday life and its relevance to students' lives. This text is a brief version of the highly regarded hardcover introductory text, Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, 7/e. The essential 15 chapters cover all of the topics in the 22-chapter text, and retain the dual emphases on micro and macro (individual and structural) sociology. James Henslin has a unique ability to engage students without talking down to them or sacrificing content. With wit, personal reflection, and illuminating examples, he shares with readers a passion for sociology unmatched by any other introductory text.

Perhaps the worst part of the book isnt even its fault. Sociology is an inherently collectivist discipline. Thus, by nature it is extremely left-leaning. That intrinsic bias in the field maps out directly onto the ideology of the book. The book contually victimizes whoever the oppressed group du jour may be -- whether it be minorities (but not asians, god forbid), gays and lesbians, the poor etc. etc. The book teaches liberal dogmas as doctrine and consequently, does not even consider any potential objections to them. In particular, in discussing public policy, the book mentions the fallacy of "blaming the victim", whereby a bystander blames whoever these "victims" may be for their situation. This presupposes that these people are victims. Instead, victimhood is blindly asserted, and the fallacy is paralleled to a situation where one would blame a rape victim for being overly showy. From neo-marxism, to cultural relativism, to its unfair and tilted view of capitalism, this book fails as an academic text. No wonder people who leave academia with a liberal arts background invariably are liberal. If you want liberal dogma as well as the state of the intelligentsia in a nullshell, read this book. if you want a balanced view of the social sciences as an engaging and balanced text, don't.


Very opinionated to one political idealogy...   March 28, 2005
 21 out of 43 found this review helpful

This text is by far the worst college text I have encountered in my educational career. Where most texts stick to relevant facts and figures relating to their area of study, this text delves into opinion coupled with unbridled conjecture.

The text is littered with political opinions and political assumptions made about its reader, while listing irrelevant facts and theories that support a socialist Democrat view of the society of the United States.

Karl Marx and Socialism are continually defended as just economic forms of society while Capitalism is openly bashed at every page turn. Conspiracy theories thrive in this book as it even accuses the United States' representational democracy as being ineffective, and that the country is actually ran by a conspiratorial "power elite."

The author often inserts personal opinion and biased so-called "personal experiences" with social issues as facts, and assumes the reader is a freshmen student unable to discern his fact from his fiction.

Here is a short excerpt from page 189, contained within a chapter dealing with social class:

Like many people, you may have said to yourself, "Sure I can vote, but somehow the big decisions are always made despite what I may think. Certainly, I don't make the decision to send soldiers to Afghanistan or Iraq. I don't launch missiles against Kosovo, or Baghdad. I don't decide to raise taxes or interest rates. It isn't I who decides to change welfare benefits."

I think it is clear here and in other excerpts from the text that the author should be writing editorials for his local newspaper instead of college texts. It seems to me that the author intends to mold the minds of the college youth in his political image under the guise of giving a factual accounting of the field of Sociology.

I absolutely do not recommend this book to anyone, and think it is time to inform my university of the contents of this text before more students are forced to purchase it in its next incarnation.

Thanks for taking the time to read my review. If you feel the same as I do about this text, then please speak up at your local university and here.


At last! An interesting text book.   December 22, 1999
 16 out of 22 found this review helpful

My intro Sociology class required that I pick this up. Although there are newer editions now, there weren't at the time. Henslin should be considered a well-rounded expert in his field. I have accumulated numerous credit hours and in all of them, I have had maybe 4 books that I liked to read. Personal anecdotes and individual reflections and examples make this book easy reading. The easier it is, the better you can soak up the info. Bravo. I'd suggest to any Soc. prof that they use this book!


A Great Introductory Text   February 1, 2004
 15 out of 22 found this review helpful

I believe one of the previous reviews of this book tried to criticize it for its "preaching of liberal dogmas" and tried to say that it was unbalanced. This is simply not the case. The author of this text is merely trying to use an open approach to encompass all aspects of sociology and thereby be a little more open-minded in his writing. So there's a little subjectivity, who cares? It's nearly impossible to write something and be 100 percent objective because there will always be a bit of your own opinion of the matter leak into what you're trying to point out. The point is, this book is simply fascinating from front to back. It is extremely easy to relate to and understand (though it is not meant for high schoolers), the information is surprisingly up-to-date with many examples in the charts and graphs, and it is simply fun to read. The book covers everything from the sociological perspective and culture to global stratification and social change in such a broad manner that you'll never lose track of what you're reading. Not only this, but the book also comes with some amazing study materials including links to a website with some of the best quizzes I've seen (they've helped me tremendously on my tests) and also other study guides such as flash cards and outlines of the chapters to help you make a study guide. All in all, Henslin's book IS the best book out there on which to embark your study of sociology. Even if you don't like it, you will find yourself interested by the many examples that Henslin provides to relate to his concepts. The only gripe I have is the fact that the book is paperback. If you're able to find a hardback edition please do so because it will last longer and will be able to be used a lot more often than the paperback will.


Readable, Interesting Textbook   May 21, 2002
 14 out of 18 found this review helpful

This book was required for a sociology course I took in college, and I have to say I wasn't very excited about sociology, but this book made the course interesting - it's very readable, up-to-date and uses many examples of sociology in action. It also has lots of pictures and charts to add interest. The companion website is also a good resource for additional information as well as practice quizzes. All in all an excellent text book.