In an era of human genome research, environmental challenges, new reproductive technologies, and more, students can benefit from introductory sociology text that is biologically informed. This innovative text integrates mainstream sociological research in all areas of sociology with a scientifically informed model of an evolved, biological human actor. This text allows students to better understand their emotional, social, and institutional worlds. It also illustrates how biological understanding naturally enhances the sociological approach.
This grounding of sociology in a biosocial conception of the individual actor is coupled with a comparative approach, as human biology is universal and often reveals itself as variations on themes across human cultures. Tables, figures, and photos, and the author’s concise and remarkably lively style make this a truly enjoyable book to read and teach.
List of Photos
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Boxes
Preface for Students and Teachers
About the Author
Part I. Introduction to Sociology
Chapter 1. What Do Sociologists Do?
Part II. Fundamentals of Sociology
Chapter 2. One Human Nature
Chapter 3. Culture
Chapter 4. Culture and Subsistence Technology
Chapter 5. Social Groups and Networks
Chapter 6. Institutions
Chapter 7. Demography
Part III. Topics in Sociology
Chapter 8. Microsociology
Chapter 9. Sociology of the Family
Chapter 10. Social Stratification
Chapter 11. Global Inequality
Chapter 12. Contemporary Gender Inequality
Chapter 13. Race and Ethnicity
Chapter 14. Sociology of Religion
Chapter 15. Crime and Violence
Chapter 16. Biosociology of Health
Chapter 17. Economic Sociology
Chapter 18. Sociology of the Environment
Chapter 19. Political Sociology and Social Movements: Human Polities Throughout History
Name Index
Subject Index
Biography
Rosemary L. Hopcroft is Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She has published widely in the areas of comparative and historical sociology and evolution, biology, and society in journals that include the American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, and Social Forces. She is the author of Evolution and Gender: Why It Matters for Contemporary Life, which received the 2018 Award for Best Book by the Evolution, Biology, & Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association.
Hopcroft’s introductory sociology textbook is one of the very few that takes seriously the necessity for developing genuinely scientific explanations of human social behavior and that strives to do so by forging explicit linkage with the basic principles of the evolutionary behavioral sciences. The effort is laudable, and it is in keeping with the longstanding, but as yet not fully realized, promise of a truly scientific sociology.
Timothy Crippen, Professor Emeritus, University of Mary WashingtonA groundbreaking introduction to sociology that anchors traditional sociology in a scientific domain freshly constituted by a sprinkling of evolutionary theory and an informed biology. The highly readable and well-written chapters are underpinned by a captivating narrative that speaks to the reader in the fashion of a one-on-one discussion of a topic. As an introduction text it fulfills a long standing need for an up-to-date integrative image of the sociological field, making it ideal for sociology students in both community colleges and Universities.
Alexandra Maryanski, Professor of the Graduate Division in the University of California at Riverside; Emerita Professor of Sociology at University of California at Riverside
