For thirty-five years and through thirteen editions, Jim Henslin's Down to Earth Sociology has opened new windows onto the social realities that shape our world. Now in its fourteenth edition, the most popular anthology in sociology includes new articles on our changing world while also retaining its classic must-read essays. Focusing on social interaction in everyday life, the forty-six selections bring students face-to-face with the twin projects of contemporary sociology: understanding the individual's experience of society and analyzing social structure.

The fourteenth edition's exceptional new readings include selections on the role of sympathy in everyday life, mistaken perceptions of the American family, the effects of a criminal record on getting a job, and the major social trends affecting our future. Together with these essential new articles, the selections by Peter Berger, Herbert Gans, Erving Goffman, Donna Eder, Zella Luria, C. Wright Mills, Deborah Tannen, Barrie Thorne, Sidney Katz, Philip Zimbardo, and many others provide firsthand reporting that gives students a sense of "being there." Henslin also explains basic methods of social research, providing insight into how sociologists explore the social world. The selections in Down to Earth Sociology highlight the most significant themes of contemporary sociology, ranging from the sociology of gender, power, politics, and religion to the contemporary crises of racial tension, crime, rape, poverty, and homelessness.

I. The Sociological Perspective

1. Invitation to Sociology
2. Sociology and the Social Sciences
3. The Promise

II. Doing Sociological Research

4. How Sociologists Do Research
5. "Riding the Bull at Gilley's": Convicted Rapists Describe the Rewards of Rape
6. Doing Fieldwork Among the Yanomamo

III. The Cultural Context of Social Life

7. Body Ritual Among the Nacirema
8. The Sounds of Silence
9. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

IV. Socialization and Gender

10. Extreme Isolation
11. On Becoming Male: Reflections of a Sociologist on Childhood and Early Socialization
12. Sexuality and Gender in Children's Daily Worlds
13. Womanspeak and Manspeak
14. Self-Fulfilling Stereotypes

V. Social Groups and Social Structure

15. If Hitler Asked You to Electrocute a Stranger, Would You? Probably
16. Streetwise
17. Trust and Cabbles
18. Diary of a Homeless Man
19. Cockfighting: America's Invisible Sport
20. Hanging Tongues: A Sociological Encounter with the Assembly Line
21. The Sociology of the Vaginal Examination

VI. Deviance and Social Control

22. The Survivors of the F-227
23. The Saints and the Roughnecks
24. Unintended Consequences of Undercover Work
25. The Pathology of Imprisonment
26. On Being Sane in Insane Places

VII. Social Inequality

27. The Bohemian Grove and Other Retreats
28. The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay All
29. Sex Discrimination - Subtle and Covert
30. Savage Inequalities
31. Tally's Corner
32. Good People and Dirty Work

VIII. Social Institutions

33. Learning the Student Role: Kindergarten as Academic Boot Camp
34. Men Who Share the "Second Shift"
35. The Streetcorner Preacher
36. The Great American Football Ritual
37. The Cloak of Competence
38. Police Accounts of Normal Force
39. The Structure of Power in American Society

IX. Social Change

40. The Amazon's Savvy Indians
41. The Vietnam War Memorial
42. The Abolition of El Cortito
43. Decision Making in Japanese Organizations
44. Searching for Roots in a Changing World