Social Situations Books - Page 3

Manufacturing Consent

Edward S. Herman

List Price: $24.95 By: Pantheon Amazon Marketplace: 2 new & used starting at $250.08

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 85 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Your life could depend on reading this book. 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Hey folks,

If you're out there considering buying this book, please know that it might prove to be one of the most important books you'll ever read.

You might realize that our government isn't always straightfoward with us. You might even have noticed the lack of objective and complete news reporting that is prevailing with the media these days. This book will show you how our government, large corporations, and the media work in concert to keep Americans in the dark about things that affect our most vital interests. It sounds like a conspiracy theory, I know--because that's the reaction we've all been conditioned to have about material like this. However, every fact in this book is verifiable. Please take the time to read it!!

I also highly recommend Blowback by Chalmers Johnson.

Read these books--learn to see past the propaganda we are inundated with daily!

Editorial Review:

Contrary to the usual image of the press as cantankerous, obstinate, and ubiquitous in its search for truth, Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky depict how an underlying elite consensus largely structures all facets of the news. They skilfully dissect the way in which the marketplace and the economics of publishing significantly shape the news. They reveal how issues are framed and topics chosen, and contrast the double standards underlying accounts of free elections, a free press, and governmental repression between Nicaragua and El Salvador; between the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and the American invasion of Vietnam; between the genocide in Cambodia under a pro-American government and genocide under Pol Pot. What emerges from this groundbreaking work is an account of just how propagandistic our mass media are, and how we can learn to read them and see their function in a radically new way.

Morality and Moral Controversies

List Price: $57.00 By: Prentice Hall College Div Amazon Marketplace: 46 new & used starting at $0.22

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

No Index 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 7 people found this review helpful.

If you are using this book for study or research, the lack of an index makes a quick find difficult. Unless you are going to read the book cover to cover (more power to you) you may miss key points you are looking for.

The book is a compilation of essays so the content can be found almost anywhere in one form or another. The small print makes the contents seem "crowded".

On a good note, the study questions at the end of the sections seemed helpful.

Editorial Review:

This comprehensive anthology includes classic and contemporary readings in moral theory--a wide array of essays that address today's most philosophically interesting and controversial ethical and political issues. Includes an ethical theory overview; shows relevance of traditional and contemporary writers. Features articles on self-interest and morality, rule utilitarianism and the conflict between duty and sentiment; Features readings on life and death, terrorism, internment in time of war, distribution of scarce medical resources and the survival lottery; Features essays on democracy, capitalism and its ethos, multiculturalism, identity and reparations. Extensive coverage of violence, terrorism, and war, as well as relativism and grounds of morality. For those involved in social or political ethical decision making.

Not With a Bang But a Whimper: The Politics and Culture of Decline

Theodore Dalrymple

Amazon Price: $17.79 List Price: $26.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Ivan R. Dee, Publisher Amazon Marketplace: 37 new & used starting at $16.56

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

"Britishness" Lost 5 out of 5 stars.
63 of 66 people found this review helpful.

Theodore Dalrymple's newest book, a collection of essays chiefly written for the magazine "City Journal," documents beneath the author's trademark wit and irony the sad decadence of contemporary Britain and the resultant loss of "Britishness," a grand tradition of civility and "common decency."

"Britishness," as Dalrymple understands it, once widespread throughout the English populace, though, of course, never universal, was a set of manners marked by "tolerance, compromise..., gentlemanly reserve, respect for privacy, individuality, a ready acceptance and even affection for eccentricity, a belief in the rule of law, [and] a profound sense of irony...." Principal famous - and diverse - models of this behavior Dalrymple convincingly identifies as Dr. Samuel Johnson, Joseph Conrad (the Pole become properly assimilated Englishman), and, his economic views notwithstanding, the incomparable George Orwell.

The loss of "Britishness" began with the post-World War Two decline of British power in the world. Politicians, careerist bureaucrats, and a growing "progressive" intelligentsia hastened its demise. Proponents of the welfare state, for instance, inadvertently or by design, encouraged a formerly self-reliant populace to adopt a sense of entitlement and expect the government to be responsible for its happiness or lack of same. Crime was redefined by police department bureaucrats eager to show its reduction. It was no longer an attack on the safety and welfare of the law-abiding but now an understandable reaction against oppressive external forces, and therefore more deserving of therapeutic reponse than of punishment in the form of lengthy jail sentences. Finally, the growing intelligentsia, fond of "ceaseless carping," made its fatal contribution to this social disaster by introducing and holding with complete uncritical dogmatism theories of multiculturalism, thus inadvertently keeping hordes of new immigrants self-satisfied in parochial enclaves while closing to them the actual routes of social advancement. A high Western culture to be shared was now ignored, if not denied, so that all the disparate groups newly composing Britain wound up with little more in common than a debased "pop" culture and perhaps a lust for shopping. Dalrymple's dire observation is that by offering such emptiness to new immigrant groups many young people among them are left defenseless against the sophistry of fundamentalist preachers of hate and terrorism.

Far from being a curmudgeon, Dalrymple is a profoundly serious essayist who challenges frivolous British politicians, bureaucrats and intellectuals to examine their own dogmas and the stereotypes they have promoted over the last decades, if only to see squarely and directly what they have wrought. As a genuine disturber of complacency, he can hope for no warmer a welcome than such types usually receive. In our age, he will not, of course, be given hemlock to drink. Rather, he will most likely be ignored by those who place a pride and a merit in refusing to see the obvious.

Editorial Review:

Theodore Dalrymple's new book of essays follows on the extraordinary success of his earlier collections, Life at the Bottom and Our Culture, What's Left of It. No social critic today is more adept and incisive in exploring the state of our culture and the ideas that are changing our ways of life. In Not with a Bang But a Whimper, he takes the measure of our cultural decline, with special attention to Britain-its bureaucratic muddle, oppressive welfare mentality, and aimless youth-all pursued in the name of democracy and freedom. He shows how terrorism and the growing numbers of Muslim minorities have changed our public life. Also here are Mr. Dalrymple's trenchant observations on artists and ideologues, and on the questionable treatment of criminals and the mentally disturbed, his area of medical interest.

Communication: Making Connections

William J. Seiler, Melissa L. Beall

List Price: $54.00 By: Allyn & Bacon Amazon Marketplace: 11 new & used starting at $5.61

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Drivel! 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This is the most long-winded book I have ever read and is thus a good example of how not to communicate. Big words are used to obfuscate simple ideas and puff up the subject into a bloated, self-important, unnecessary load of drivel. Look out - it gets worse: If your Speech Communication teacher likes this book it probably means you have to pretend to be left-wing to get a good grade.

Editorial Review:

Introduces readers to the skills and theory of communication while focusing on the connection of communication to their lives, their education, and their careers and the role of technology in the communication process. The authors believe that communication is about connecting, linking, sharing, participating, bonding, coupling, or joining with others. This book uses exercises and examples, as well as the authors' conversational style, to draw readers into the book and motivate them to learn and understand the basic principles of communication. An integrated emphasis on technology helps readers learn about its relationship to communication. For anyone wanting an introduction to the field of communication.

Human Communication

Judy C. Pearson, Paul E Nelson, Scott Titsworth, Lynn Harter

By: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages Amazon Marketplace: 60 new & used starting at $2.00

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Human Communication: The Essentials is a completely refurbished version of the best-selling Human Communication: Understanding and Sharing by Judy Pearson and Paul Nelson. With The Essentials, Pearson and Nelson joined up with new co-authors Scott Titsworth and Lynn Harter to write an introduction to communication that ardently represents the contemporary field of communication studies. The authors approached the project with the mantra "Make It Smart; Keep It Real" so as to strike a practical balance of definitive content and everyday application.

To make it smart the authors read hundreds of articles from such mainstream communication journals as Communication Education, Communication Monographs and Communication Studies. To keep it real the authors synthesized their findings so that they resonate with the challenges and goals of today's typical basic course. Every chapter features lively, respectful writing, critical thinking, innovative pedagogy and 21st century examples. The original six-part video series "The Elliotts: Communicating Everyday", scripted by Pearson/Nelson/Titsworth/Harter, represents key concepts of communication in the format of a contemporary television drama series. And important communication models are brought to life through a series of innovative animations developed by the authors. The Essentials is a complete, integrated learning package wherein all the components for instructor and student are related and connected.

How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York With Introductory Chapters and a Riis Chronology (Bedford Series in History and Culture)

Jacob A. Riis

List Price: $49.95 By: Bedford / Palgrave Macmillan Amazon Marketplace: 3 new & used starting at $5.00

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 34 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

NOT the right edition - get the DOVER 1 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Riis was before all else a photojournalist, and this his major body of work. As such, the fact that there even exist editions which do not contain quality reproductions of the photos astounds me. This edition only contains a few, and they are small, pixelated, two-tone reproductions. The Dover edition is the one to get.

Wrong edition. 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

We all know the story, which can be found in any edition of this book-- and yes, they will all have typos, as the book was never originally put through a rigorous editing process. That's part of it's 'charm.'

The problem, though, is this specific edition--many images are left out, and the images really make the book; after all, Jacob Riis was one of the first muckraking photojournalists... wouldn't you want to see those pictures? They add incredible depth to the story. Luckily I had to read this for a class, and didn't mind it, but... for someone reading it for personal purposes, spend the few extra dollars for an edition with photographs. It is SO worth it.

Editorial Review:

Published in 1890, Jacob Riis's remarkable study of the horrendous living conditions of the poor in New York City had an immediate and extraordinary impact on society, inspiring reforms that affected the lives of millions of people. Riis's reliance on specific, hard facts as weapons of social criticism pioneered the style of crusading journalism that continues today. Photos throughout .

Social Problems

John J. Macionis

Amazon Price: $84.75 List Price: $105.33 Usually ships in 7 to 11 days By: Prentice Hall Amazon Marketplace: 110 new & used starting at $60.00

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Clear, compellling authors!! 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I used this text for a course in "Social Problems in Human Relations." A quote from one of my students perhaps typifies all student reactions: "Reading Sociology books used to be murder, but this text is so readable, so compelling. What happened (for the better)?!"
As instructor, I appreciate the way the authors include not
only the theoretical paradigms to accompany each social
issue, but also the political perspectives -- all in reader
friendly ways.
Each chapter opens with a brief, real-life story, helping the reader to instantly connect with the so-called "sociological imagination" and begging the reader to read on.

Editorial Review:

Macionis's Social Problems is the only social problems text that explains how society frames social problems and solutions through politics. The text analyzes social issues and policies, using the concepts of sociological theory and the everyday language of politics.

 

This text helps students understand the attitudes and values that define the political spectrum in the United States. Once students know how social problems are defined by our society through politics, and how the policies to solve these problems are developed, students are able to  become involved in solving social problems through activism and political involvement.

The Social Animal

Elliot Aronson

List Price: $12.00 By: W.H.Freeman & Co Ltd Amazon Marketplace: 44 new & used starting at $0.02

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Where Psychology meets Culture 5 out of 5 stars.
26 of 30 people found this review helpful.

Aronson's emminently readable volume is packed with useful--if not always profound--insights and information that go a long way towards explaining many of the abnomal "normalities" of our own society. Although Aronson's volume is far from being preachy, it is difficult not to make certain connections within our own society that have the character of being drawn directly from Aronson's experiments.

Racism, for instance can now be explained entirely in social psychological terms. Both white and non-white behaviror--actions and interactions--follow the models of Aronson's experiments precisely. Alienation within our society and the attendant lost of a sense of community is another example of one of the secondary effects of social psychological processes made so profoundly clear from this book.

Aronson leaves us with a lot to digest and think about, and this in my view is what books of this sort should do. This is a real tour de force. I highly recommend it.

Editorial Review:

Winner of the American Psychological Association's National Media Award, this book provides an introduction to modern social psychology. It covers such diverse topics as conformity, sex, politics, war and scientific ethics. The author explains fundamental principles and their applications to everyday life. This 7th edition has beeen updated to include recent research results and topical examples of particular interest such as false memory, smoker's rights, the Los Angeles riots and US involvement in Somalia.

The interpersonal communication book

Joseph A DeVito

By: Harper & Row Amazon Marketplace: 4 new & used starting at $12.88

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Offering the perfect balance of theory and practical skills, this market-leading text equips students to make reasoned and effective communication decisions. Recognized for its ability to help students understand the crucial connection between theory and practice, the Ninth Edition includes a new feature called "Ask the Researcher" in which renowned researchers provide practical, and sometimes provocative, answers to questions often raised by students in the course. An entirely new chapter--Unit 22 "Interpersonal Communication and Relationships in the Workplace"--extends DeVito's trademark coverage of interpersonal relationships into the workplace. Further supporting the text's mission to provide students with an interactive and engaging introduction to interpersonal communication, the Ninth Edition features an exciting new integrated text and technology learning system. Contextually-placed web icons in the text's margins direct students to the book's Companion Website where they engage in interactive exercises or simulations that help them gain a better understanding of concepts presented in the text. Superior coverage of cultural diversity, expanded coverage of ethics, and new discussions of the effects of technology make The Interpersonal Communication Book, Ninth Edition, the best choice for preparing students to communicate successfully in today's world.

Communicate!

Rudolph F. Verderber

List Price: $23.95 By: Wadsworth Publishing Company Amazon Marketplace: 16 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

An Excellent And Thorough Text 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The previous reviewer who has mentioned that this particular text is rather demeaning perhaps needs to re-examine his statement. He laments about the text being too simplistic and emphasizing too much on the basic values of communication. However this type of erroneous approach is the reason why these reviewers fail to communicate their ideas clearly- it is obvious that they themselves need to learn the art of communication better.

The book is extremely detailed in explaining the necessity of communication and many basic concepts. This is extremely important because too often we forget about the reasons behind communication. The book provides a comprehensive sketch on every form of communication- examples are provided and sections are clearly dilineated. Is there anything wrong with explaining the basic functions of communication? The author provides six of them: to meet needs, to enhance and maintain our sense of self, to fulfil social obligations, to develop relationships, to exchange information, and to influence others. It is often important for many of us to be reminded of the reason behind why we communicate. It may sound boring and uninteresting, but such knowledge provides us with a solid foundation on the principles of communication and why we shouldn't take the art of communicating for granted.

This is not a book for those who intend to take a crash course on how communicating can earn you more money in 30 days. Rather, it is the type of book that clearly explains all the various elements that are a part of communication in our day to day lives. This is a perfect text for both students who wish to improve their communication skills, and for teachers who plan to use it as a classroom text or reference on the subject.

Editorial Review:

Continually praised by reviewers for its clear and concise writing style, this ground breaking and market-leading textbook is theory-based with a skill building and competency orientation. The authors provide lively, contemporary examples to ground theory, to increase comprehension, and to help you become skillful communicators. COMMUNICATE! encourages active learning through well-designed analytical and skill-building activities, video scenarios, ethics cases, speech action-step exercises, and sample speeches. This book will help you understand theory, and help you improve your communication skills. The twelfth edition of COMMUNICATE! reflects important changes in the field and has been updated to reflect the issues and interests of today's college students.