Centennial Libraries contains tens of thousands of eBooks! Search through the main library home page or browse through one of our eBook databases below.
These classics in sociological thought can help you get started thinking about topics in sociology. They represent only a small number of books available so be sure to check out some recommended searches (at left) to find additional resources!
C. Wright Mills is best remembered for his highly acclaimed work The Sociological Imagination, in which he set forth his views on how social science should be pursued. The sociological imagination Mills calls for is a sociological vision, a way of looking at the world that can see links between the apparently private problems of the individual and important social issues. A classic in the field, this book still provides rich food for our imagination.
Extracts from all phases of Durkheim's intellectual career are represented, giving the date of their first publication, which makes the evolution of his thought easily traceable. In his introduction, Dr Giddens discusses phases in the interpretation of Durkheim's thought, as well as the main themes in his work, with an analysis of the effects of his thinking on modern sociology.
This landmark book is a founding work in the literature of black protest. W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963) played a key role in developing the strategy and program that dominated early 20th-century Black protest in America. In this collection of essays, first published together in 1903, he eloquently affirms that it is beneath the dignity of a human being to beg for those rights that belong inherently to all mankind.
Max Weber's best-known and most controversial work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, first published in 1904, remains to this day a powerful and fascinating read. The book contends that the Protestant ethic made possible and encouraged the development of capitalism in the West.
Mary Wollstonecraft wrote Vindication of the Rights of Woman in response to public debate and discussion about the education of women. She argues that women should be educated according to their station, and that they could be more than mere wives to their husbands and educators to their children. The text is one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy.
In this wide-ranging, intellectually vigorous study, Said traces the origins of "orientalism" to the centuries-long period during which Europe dominated the Middle and Near East and, from its position of power, defined "the orient" simply as "other than" the occident. This entrenched view continues to dominate western ideas and, because it does not allow the East to represent itself, prevents true understanding.
Foucault examines innovations that range from the abolition of torture to the institution of forced labor and the appearance of the modern penitentiary, he suggests that punishment has shifted its focus from the prisoner's body to the soul — and that our very concern with rehabilitation encourages and refines criminal activity.
The Communist Manifesto (1848)—originally the Manifesto of the Communist Party—is a pamphlet by German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The Manifesto was commissioned by the Communist League and first published in London during the start of the 1848 Revolutions. It is now recognized as one of the world's most influential political documents.
In search of a subject matter for sociology that would distinguish it from all other social sciences and humanistic disciplines, Georg Simmel charted a new field for discovery and proceeded to explore a world of novel topics in works that have guided and anticipated the thinking of generations of sociologists.
This book explores the realm of human behavior in social situations and the way that we appear to others. Each person in everyday social intercourse presents himself and his activity to others, attempts to guide and control the impressions they form of him, and employs certain techniques in order to sustain his performance, just as an actor presents a character to an audience.
Karl Mannheim was one of the leading sociologists of the twentieth century. Essays on the Sociology of Culture, originally published in 1956, sets out his ideas of intellectuals as producers of culture and explores the possibilities of a democratization of culture.
How can we hope to understand social inequality without considering race, class, and gender in tandem? How do they interact with other categories such as sexuality, citizenship, and ableism? How does an inclusive analysis of domination and privilege move us closer to solutions touching the lives of diverse populations? In this clearly written book, Mary Romero presents intersectionality as a core facet of the sociological imagination. One-dimensional approaches are no longer acceptable. Instead, we must examine all systems of oppression simultaneously and how they integrate and work with or against each other to shape life experiences.
In spite of the double burden of racial and gender discrimination, African-American women have developed a rich intellectual tradition that is not widely known. In Black Feminist Thought, Patricia Hill Collins explores the words and ideas of Black feminist intellectuals as well as those African-American women outside academe.
This fully updated and expanded edition of the bestselling Student’s Companion to Social Policy charts the latest developments, research, challenges, and controversies in the field in a concise, authoritative format.
Examining the racial histories and colorblindness in fields as diverse as social psychology, the law, musicology, literary studies, sociology, and gender studies, Seeing Race Again documents the profoundly contradictory role of the academy in constructing, naturalizing, and reproducing racial hierarchy. It shows how colorblindness compromises the capacity of disciplines to effectively respond to the wide set of contemporary political, economic, and social crises marking public life today.
From Trump's proposed border wall and travel ban to the marching of white supremacists in Charlottesville, America is consumed by tensions over immigration and the question of which bodies are welcome. In this much-anticipated follow-up to the bestselling UK edition, hailed by Zadie Smith as "lively and vital," editors Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman hand the microphone to an incredible range of writers whose humanity and right to be here is under attack.
Simone de Beauvoir’s masterwork is a powerful analysis of the Western notion of “woman,” and a groundbreaking exploration of inequality and otherness.
A major influence on civil rights, anti-colonial, and black consciousness movements around the world, Black Skin, White Masks is the unsurpassed study of the black psyche in a white world. Hailed for its scientific analysis and poetic grace when it was first published in 1952, the book remains a vital force today from one of the most important theorists of revolutionary struggle, colonialism, and racial difference in history.
This collection of essays is a treasure by one of the world's foremost social thinkers. In it, Smith turns her wit and common sense on the prevailing discourses of sociology, political economy, philosophy, and popular culture, at the same time redefining her own sociological and feminist theory and practice
Racism Without Racists examines in detail how Whites talk, think, and account for the existence of racial inequality. The main argument of the book is that color-blind racism, a new racial ideology that emerged in the post-Civil Rights era, has emerged as the fountain of frames, stylistic components, and racial stories Whites rely on to articulate their views on racial affairs. Relying on systematically-gathered interview data, Bonilla-Silva not only de constructs the main elements of this ideology, but also explains how the ways most Whites live their lives (the "white habitus") is central to the reproduction of this ideology, why a specific segment of the White community is more racially progressive, and accounts for how Blacks are effected by the ideology.
