Title overview
For courses in Introductory Sociology.
A brief down-to-earth approach to sociology
Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach takes students on an intellectual adventure of discovery through firsthand accounts of author Jim Henslin's travels around the world. Using his hallmark down-to-earth approach and a traditional 3-perspectives framework, Henslin presents a sincere, accessible narrative that helps students gain a better understanding of both society and themselves.
The 14th Edition of Henslin's brief text offers new coverage of contemporary topics, updated tables and figures, and references to recent research while emphasizing the relevance of sociology to students' lives.
Hallmark features of this title
- Through the Author's Lens photo essays shot by Jim Henslin in India, Colombia and other locations open students' minds to diverse social life and stimulate discussion.
- Down-to-Earth Sociology boxes explore sociological processes that underlie everyday life.
- Cultural Diversity around the World boxes reveal how differently life is lived in other nations. Cultural Diversity in the United States boxes examine the wide array of people in the US.
- Thinking Critically about Social Life boxes explore issues that affect students' lives.
- Sociology and Technology boxes explore how technology affects our lives as it changes society.
- Applying Sociology to Your Life boxes help students connect with stories on a personal level and view people with greater empathy.
New and updated features of this title
- UPDATED: Author Jim Henslin has updated the text thoroughly to reflect recent events and contemporary issues. Topics receiving fresh coverage include the following:
- How some people's connections with their pets are stronger than their connections with humans (in Chapter 2)
- The ways in which self-identities are changing the cisgender, or binary, model of gender (in Chapter 3)
- The fentanyl crisis and the Sackler-Purdue crimes (in Chapter 6)
- How the EU, weakened when Great Britain left, took on exceptional strength with the invasion of Ukraine (in Chapter 11)
- UPDATED: Fresh additions to the text's feature boxes stress topics relevant to students' lives. Examples include a new Thinking Critically about Social Life box entitled “Climate Change and Our Darkening Future” and a new Down-to-Earth Sociology box called “Transgender and Women's Sports.”
Key features
Features of Revel for the 14th Edition
- Hearing from the Author audio clips provide additional context for understanding difficult topics. Author Jim Henslin's observations and personal experiences reinforce how sociology is part of our everyday lives.
- Hearing from Students videos enable learners to hear how their peers apply the sociological perspective of the chapter to their own lives.
- Pearson Originals docuseries videos explain contemporary issues and current events, helping students to connect with stories on a personal level and to contextualize core concepts.
- Interactive Social Maps featuring Social Explorer technology illustrate demographic trends at home and abroad. These maps show how social conditions vary among the states as well as how the US compares with countries around the world.
- Review the Chapter sections enable students to reinforce their retention of the chapter's key takeaways using flashcards that feature key terms and definitions.
- Enhanced Images of historic photos and documents allow students to zoom in to gain different perspectives.
Table of contents
- The Sociological Perspective
- Culture
- Socialization
- Social Structure and Social Interaction
- Social Groups and Formal Organizations
- Deviance and Social Control
- Global Stratification
- Social Class in the United States
- Race and Ethnicity
- Gender and Age
- Politics and the Economy
- Marriage and Family
- Education and Religion
- Population and Urbanization
- Social Change and the Environment
Author bios
About our authors
Jim Henslin was born in Minnesota, graduated from high school and junior college in California and from college in Indiana. Awarded scholarships, he earned his master's and doctorate degrees in sociology at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. After this, he won a postdoctoral fellowship from the National Institute of Mental Health and spent a year studying how people adjust to the suicide of a family member. His primary interests in sociology are the sociology of everyday life, deviance and international relations. Among his many books are Down-to-Earth Sociology: Introductory Readings and Social Problems, now in its 12th edition. He has also published widely in sociology journals, including Social Problems and American Journal of Sociology.
While a graduate student, Jim taught at the University of Missouri at St. Louis. After completing his doctorate, he joined the faculty at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, where he is Professor Emeritus of Sociology. He says, “I've always found the introductory course enjoyable to teach. I love to see students' faces light up when they first glimpse the sociological perspective and begin to see how society has become an essential part of how they view the world.”
Jim enjoys reading and fishing, and he also does a bit of kayaking and weightlifting. His 2 favorite activities are writing and traveling. He especially enjoys visiting and living in other cultures, for this brings him face to face with behaviors and ways of thinking that challenge his perspectives and “make sociological principles come alive.” A special pleasure has been the preparation of Through the Author's Lens, the series of photo essays that appear in this text.
Jim moved to Latvia, an Eastern European country formerly dominated by the Soviet Union, where he had the experience of becoming an immigrant. There he observed firsthand how people struggle to adjust to capitalism. While there, he interviewed aged political prisoners who had survived the Soviet gulag. He then moved to Spain, where he was able to observe how people adjust to a declining economy and the immigration of people from contrasting cultures. (Of course, for this he didn't need to leave the United States.) To better round out his cultural experiences, Jim recently visited South Korea, Vietnam and again India. He hopes to travel extensively in South America, where he expects to do more photo essays to reflect their fascinating cultures. Jim is grateful to be able to live in such exciting social, technological, and geopolitical times, and to have access to portable broadband Internet while he pursues his sociological imagination.