Social Sciences Books

Some of my friends found this book really inspiring. I tend to look for things like detailed and balanced analysis of issues, in-depth descriptions of the work of political groups, and sophisticated understanding of the way in which voluntary organizations interact with elite politics and economic factors. This book is weak on all of those - but it DOES have a lot of inspirational rhetoric.

Paul Hawken has a wonderful gift of pattern recognition that enables him to draw from diverse sources and sew together a patchwork of information that is compelling in its message: We must work together if life on this planet as we know it today is going to survive the threats of devaluation of individual life, depleted resources, pollution and global heating. (Heating is my term. I feel that `warming' is an unacceptable euphemism!)What is most appealing to me after the excellent summary of facts and issues is Hawken's positive spin on the situation.

When asked at colleges if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science that describes what is happening on earth today and aren't pessimistic, you don't have the correct data. If you meet the people in this unnamed movement and aren't optimistic, you haven't got a heart. What I see are ordinary and some not-so-ordinary individuals willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in an attempt to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. (p. 4)

Healing the wounds of the earth and its people does not require saintliness or a political party, only gumption and persistence. It is not a liberal or conservative activity; it is a sacred act. (p. 5)

In total, the book is inadvertently optimistic, an odd thing in these bleak times. I didn't intend it; optimism discovered me. (p. 8)

Hawken points out that the roots of our problems lie in our concepts and attitudes about our world. For instance, production and acquisition of material goods has become the primary focus and goal of the modern world, to the point that they are more important than people. This has shaped our mentality in self-destructive ways. Mass production and distribution of products become more economical and profitable through uniformity. Living systems thrive best on diversity, which provides a gene pool that can adapt to external challenges. However, in the name of enhancing efficiency of food production, distribution and sales, our diversity has been sacrificed and the biological pool of genetic resources has been systematically whittled down to the cheapest and most marketable varieties of edibles. This mind-set is core to the struggles of our modern world between the interests of business and industry and the interests of people and the environment.

In the pursuit of industrial and economic growth that has assumed the proportions of an ideology, natural resources have been over-exploited to the point that they are depleted. Our fish, trees, land and waters have been wantonly exploited, with little if any thought to the needs of tomorrow, much less to those of future generations. Similarly with people:

Slaves, serfs, and the poor are the forests, soils, and oceans of society; each constitutes surplus value that has been exploited repeatedly by those in power, whether governments or multinational corporations. (p. 22)

Trade is not the salient issue; the critical question is, Who sets the rules and who enforces them? There can be no sustainability when institutions whose primary purpose is to create money are dictating the standards. (p. 135)

As a uniform trading system sweeps over the world, the monetary gains are called GDP, but the losses that are suffered, even in the industrialized West, much less in the Third World, are not tallied, as if one were recording sales at the cash register but ignoring thefts at the back of the warehouse. (p. 118)

The World Trade Organization (WTO) seeks to establish commerce as the basis for governing the world. It is set up without checks and balances, as a dictatorial institution that can override local populations' wishes and needs.

The purpose of the organization could not be simpler: the eliminations of constraints on the flow of trade, including how a product is made, by whom it is made, or what happens after it is made. By doing so, WTO removes individual countries; and regions; ability to set standards, to express values, or to determine what they do or do not support if those standards conflict with WTO rules. (p. 120)

In all WTO rulings one common denominator prevails, and the denominator is money. (p. 129)

The severity of the challenges has spawned both awareness and action groups. Hawken gives brief discursive summaries of several dozens of these, and many more as annotated references.

The exponential assault on resources and the production of waste, coupled with the extirpation of cultures and the exploitation of workers, is a disease as surely as hepatitis or cancer. It is sponsored by a political-economic system of which we are all a part, and any finger-pointing is inevitably directed back to ourselves. There may be no particular they there, but the system is still a disease, even if we created and contracted it. Because a lot of people know we are sick and want to treat the cause, not just the symptoms, the environmental movement can be seen as humanity's response to contagious policies killing the earth, while the social justice movement addresses economic and legislated pathogens that destroy families, bodies, cultures, and communities. (p. 145)

Action groups work at different levels to promote a saner, sustainable world:
· Watch organizations - monitor governmental institutions, corporations and geographically sensitive areas
· Keeper groups - advocate for the preservation of waters and all their users
· Networks - combine the information, knowledge and action focus of like-minded groups

For example:
· The US Green Building Council (USGBC) promotes awareness of, use, and distribution of building materials that do not deplete or harm the environment.
· "Slow Food (alimento lento) is the long overdue response to dead food, processed food, fast food, agribusiness..." (p. 155)
· Microloans help to bring hardworking people out of poverty. Kiva.org brokers loans on line.

Hawken points out that every one of us bears a responsibility to participate in addressing these problems. The two basic rules to guide us must be the Golden Rule and the Sacredness of All Life. We must aim for a `zero-waste society" or better, a restorative one.

We will either come together as one, globalized people, or we will disappear as a civilization. To come together we must know our place in a biological and cultural sense, and reclaim our role as engaged agents of our continued existence. (p. 165)

I cannot recommend this book highly enough - to anyone interested in contributing to healing our modern societal illnesses and insanities and saving our world.

This is a wonderfully documented guide about groups working for social justice and for bringing balance and restoring our planet's seriously damaged environment.

Among many issues, Paul Hawken tells us that fighting for those important objectives, ideology or partisan politics play a secondary role, because civilization survival is on the balance and people's direct involvement is vital.

Saving Earth and bringing social justice to all must have priority over short term goals, such as profit maximizing via externilizing costs to society.

The road for the largest social movement in history is long and full of powerful obstacles. That is why social and ecological education along with democratic participation are crucial. After all, real democracy is built from the bottom up and not the other way around, as the political establishment wants us to believe.

I heard about Paul Hawken few weeks ago and I decided to buy his book. I just feel that I learnt so much, the information is clear, the writing is great. Loved the image of the immune system as a comparison of the reaction of people who fight for Human Rights, Environment, Culture, Language, etc. I just want to read more now about these subjects. (sorry for the mistakes)

A few years ago, activist author Paul Hawken set out to create a database of every non-profit in the world categorized into a taxonomy, which is now on the web in a sort of Wikipedia community format at wiserearth (dot) org - This had never really been done before and he was surprised by the sheer number of organizations working independently to make the world a better place. He found a common thread that all were concerned about the environment and human justice. From this he concluded that there is a global "movement" (a word with many qualifiers) the likes of which have never been seen. He compares it to the "Industrial Revolution" - at the time everyone knew something different was happening, but no one had a name for it or even described it as a unique event, it was both everywhere and unrecognized. Likewise, according to Hawken, this global movement is from the ground up, with no core ideology or leadership, it's an historical mass movement that has snuck up on us and only now being recognized as a major shift.

I think Hawken's message is a powerful one and will appeal to the millions of people working in small groups in isolation against large and powerful forces. Hawken does in fact describe a new trend that has been observed by others: the recent rise, proliferation and influence of NGOs. Hawken contends top-down organizations led by ideologies are old school 20th century, the future is distributed small organic holistic, sort of like how Wikipedia is made, millions of individuals (small and large NGOs) contributing expertise on a local basis that has the net effect of global human and environmental justice.

I had some problems with the book, it is clearly a one-sided manifesto and much of it is historical anecdote of well known incidents (the Bolivian water wars, the India coke pesticide case, etc..) and presents a single side. These issues are extremely complex, it is rarely so easy to say there are good and bad guys, it is harmful IMO to present these controversial issues so one-sided and hold them up as poster children for reform. Why not look at the real undisputed success stories that everyone can get behind? He does in some cases such as Rachel Carson's fight against DDT. Overall I was touched by Hawken's passion,
vision and (ironically) his idealism.

It's rather drier and more academic than I'd hoped for, though terrifically erudite. It's enormous too. A fascinating subject, and a very important book, but hard to sustain an interest in. Suited to the more academic reader.

I admit I didn't finish the book. I was bored by much of it and read parts here and there. But what I looked for and didn't find was what seems to me to be obvious...We're less social because we're more mobile. Corporations shuttle families around the nation so rapidly that after a few generations of this nobody is really part of any community anymore, they're just living/working/earning there. Nobody you grew up with lives near you. You have no reputation to protect. We're a nation of strangers. I think it's less important that people join formal groups and more important that they actually know each other and relate in a way that indicates that the relationship is permanent. But in our mobile society it's not permanent.

I know from being displaced myself that when you move to a new area you don't expect to be in long, you simply do not care about it in the same way as "home". And related to that, the inhabitants there sure do not care for you!

I agree with another review that overcrowding and urbanization may be a part of the problem too. If you're constantly having to deal with crowding on roads and in shops and at events, you may just prefer a nice basement media room to sitting on the porch chatting up neighbors.

Also, if you know you're living with people for the next 40 years, your attitude toward them is quite different than if you're just a transient in their lives for the next year or so. Till you either change jobs, move to another suburb, or retire to where you really want to live. Corporations' needs for workers in different cities force us to either choose financial security or social stability. There is little effort given to ensuring workers can have a career in one city anymore. Even fractional advantages in costs/etc will cause companies to move hundreds of workers. I've been affected by it.

Overall, a very disappointing book that had a good premise but came to the wrong conclusions.

Robert D. Putnam's BOWLING ALONE provides what is, arguably, the most robust scientific treatment in a single volume of the conversation about friendship and its benefits begun by Aristotle nearly twenty-four centuries ago, a conversation about what has now come to be called "social capital" :

"...how can prosperity be guarded and preserved without friends...And in poverty and in other misfortunes men think friends are the only refuge. It helps the young, too, to keep them from error; it aids older people by ministering to their needs and supplementing the activities that are failing from weakness; those in the prime of life it stimulates to noble action." [And,] "Friendship seems too to hold states together..." (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics).

No less importantly than this Aristotelian connection, Putnam joins earlier 20th Century writers to enlarge Adam Smith's emphasis on the productive effects of `capital.' Smith wrote:

...the produce of a man's own labour can supply but a very small part of his occasional wants. The far greater part of them are supplied by the produce of other men's labour, which he purchases...with the price of the produce of his own...A stock of goods of different kinds, therefore, must be stored up somewhere sufficient to maintain him, and to supply him with the materials and tools of his work... (Introduction to Book II, Wealth of Nations)

BOWLING ALONE demonstrates how this "stock of goods" including the effects of friendship, reciprocity, sympathy, trust, and integrity, become the "materials and tools" fundamental to the health of the community. Thus, emphasizing the productive nature of affiliation, social capital - a smile, a kind word, a helping hand, group participation - gets "saved," in our rolodexes or their hippocampal versions, to be used advantageously another day. Here one notes that, though little emphasized by most contemporary cheerleaders for unfettered Capitalism, Adam Smith, too, emphasized sympathy, rather than petty selfishness, as one of Capitalism's essential ingredients.

Putnam provides a vast array of empirical data documenting the productive effects of friendship and communal action on politics (Chap. 2), community involvement (Chap. 3), religious participation (Chap. 4), workplace association (Chap. 5), informal social activity (Chap. 6) and altruistic activity (Chap. 7). In any of these venues, reciprocity, honesty, and trust compose the yeast for productive social activity (Chap. 8).

Putnam's interpretation of the data convincingly indicates that some generations are equaler than others. Over the half-century leading up to the publication of Putnam's book, the combination of television, suburbanization, the changing nature of work, have been factors in the dwindling of our social "goods." But most significantly, shifts in generational norms (Chaps. 10-15), have resulted in "anticivic contagion," the substantial decline in the activities that generate social capital (Chaps. 2-8), though there are exceptions (Chap. 9). In astonishing geographic detail, Putnam graphs (Figures 80-89) the correlations between social capital and its deficits in American community life, public affairs, volunteerism, sociability and trust (Chaps. 16). These are tied quite demonstrably to costs for education and children's welfare (Chap. 17), safe and productive neighborhoods (Chap. 18), economic prosperity (Chap. 19), health and happiness (Chap 20), and participatory democracy (Chap. 21). In the last two chapters (Chaps. 23, 24) he details what might be done to replenish social capital and "walking the walk" has introduced websites and seminars promoting social capital under the auspices of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Putnam recognizes other earlier uses of the phrase "social capital" with varying degrees of specificity, tracing its earliest use to L. J. Hanifan, a state superintendent of rural schools in 1916:

"good will, fellowship, sympathy, and social intercourse...[result in] an accumulation of social capital which may immediately satisfy [the individuals] needs and which may bear a social potentiality sufficient to the substantial improvement of living conditions in the whole community."

Others who have used the phrase include Jane Jacobs, who applied it to the health of neighborhoods (The Death and Life of Great American Cities, 1961), and Pierre Bourdieu who emphasized it in the contexts of social competition (The forms of capital. In: John G. Richardson (ed.): Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. New York: Greenwood Press 1986). But, Putnam goes further than any earlier writer, applying the concept to the communal health of a nation.

The concept of social capital, and particularly Putnam's rendering of it, is not without its critics whose objections are on semantic, philosophical, empirical and policy terms. Andy Blunden objects to its quantification and to the causal ambiguity of correlations that Putnam uses to support his inferences, though I think Putnam does not dismiss the likelihood of hidden variables that might be influencing the more apparent ones. The eminent sociologist Alejandro Portes takes up similar issues (Social Capital: Its Origins and Applications in Modern Sociology, Annu. Rev. Sociol. 1998. 24:1.24), though, in fairness, his critique was on Putnam's earlier work in this area and BOWLING ALONE effectively addresses some of them. Theda Skocpol tellingly argues that Putnam's approach essentially blames the victim (cf. Unraveling From Above, The American Prospect no. 25 (March-April 1996): 20-25.).

The critiques notwithstanding, Putnam's work has been enormously influential even beyond the halls of academe, insinuating itself into state of the union addresses (Clinton, 1995) and the current presidential campaign (bridging v. bonding capital). For more specifics about how social capital has interrelated effects up and down the conceptual ladder from the genome to community life see A. R. Cellura's The Genomic Environment and Niche-Experience (Cedar Springs Press, 2006).

In reviewing Putnam's work it is important to remember that the discourse about social capital not only educates as to the health of individuals and societies but also as to the health of political systems. De Tocqueville marveled at Americans' as joiners because he correctly theorized that intermediate organizations are crucial for the healthy working of modern democracies. Thus the evidence that Americans are joining fewer organizations should also cause us to question the health of American democracy.
The recent acceptance by large swaths of the American public that torture is an acceptable method in defending democracy shows a kind of extremism not far removed from that of Nazi Germany where again intermediate organizations are said to have been were few and opened the way for mass organizations and the state to isolate the individual and place him/her one on one with the demagogue and his mass party.
Differences with Germany's case are enormous of course yet evidence that democracy is not in a healthy state should make us ask questions. It is in this light that Putnam's work takes an even greater significance.

Putnam accurately articulates that odd malaise many boomers deeply feel; loss of "community" (whatever one may take that to mean). He then tangentially reasons that the culprit is "diversity". The fact is that this particular boomer angst is far more the product of population density. In the '50s and '60s (his "Golden Age") solitude was far more easily acquired. Even in urbania, a short walk or a brief drive could deliver the needed dose of peace and quiet that reknits the "ravell'd sleeve of care". No more. Today, we can't get away from the crowd. It is overpopulation that drives us to seek relative social isolation. And whether the crowd looks like we do or not, it is still the crowd.

Putnam commits the endemic error of improperly linking cause and effect. Because the America he bemoans the loss of was whiter and far more insular, he attributes its unfortunate transformation to diversity. Anyone who has studied mammalian behavior will know that once a certain population density is reached, the behaviors that Putnam collectively refers to as "community" drastically decline.

If you're looking for something like Uglies this isn't it. I felt as though it had written by a different author!

the few objections to the book i have is this:
1.aya can be very annoying. she is obsessed with fame in a way that wildly surpasses tally's obsession with being a "pretty" in the book uglies.
2.aya is simply not as interesting a character as tally, or even shay. i would have enjoyed a book more that was about tally and more tally. she has developed, struggled, failed, and won, and she is a really fascinating character in this book. i wanted to know what was going on in her head.
3.now that i think about it, this book does have a pretty boring ending, but it wasn't bad or anything. the whole book was so confusing and unexpected that it was a bit of a relief for things to go back to normal(as normal as they can be in aya's world.
4.i didn't love the characters. the books before? i loved them. they fascinated and frustrated me to no end. the ones i didn't love in the former books were still pretty cool to watch. this book left me still loving the older charasters, but not the new ones. i didn't hate them, but they weren't as powerful.

my commendations:
1.it was kinda interesting to see tally and shay and david from the outside. tally is a lot more insane then i realized.
2.plot was cool, in some ways. the adventuresome girls in this novel that aya plans to publish are pretty darn cool.
3.i've already said it partially, but the parts with tally in them are still the most interesting.

so it kinda was cool, but it didn't spellbind me. don't get me wrong, most readers will be so dazzled they will LOVE it at first, like i did. and it was a good book. i don't think you should avoid all "add-ons", especially not this one. it won't screw up tally's story (and make you wanna forget you read it beacause it ended wrong like some last books in series). read it, like it, and then go reread pretties or uglies so you can make up for the lack of true character struggle or characters that you care enough about to wait through their struggle.

Pros: An original, believable concept, great characters.

Cons: Ending is a bit of a let down.

I was a bit reluctant to read this book, as I thought that Westerfield's last attempt, Specials, was the weakest in the series. Nevertheless, I am a fan of the series in general and when I saw this book in Borders, I had to pick it up. I was not disappointed.

Aya, a fifteen-year-old living in a society with a reputation based economic system, makes a more interesting protagonist than Tally Youngblood. Her curiosity, independence, and ambition drive the story along much better than Tally's initial wishy-washiness in Uglies. Aya's cohorts Ren and Hiro are also very well done and I am left with the impression that the weakest characters in the whole thing are the ones who from the previous books who show up in the last few chapters.

The story concept is just as original and fascinating as Uglies, if not more. In a world where people are constantly checking their internet popularity, Aya's world which tracks the number of times a person's name is spoken and gives extra goods and services to those with a high number seems eerily familiar and yet remote enough to make an good fantastical concept. The only flaw in the way that Aya's city is presented is that I find it hard to believe that the system would work so seamlessly only a few years after the end of the "pretty" system.

I would conclude that Extras is altogether the best book in the series, but I do have to say that the ending is comparatively weak. The middle is good -- we build up from Aya wanting to be famous to Aya uncovering a conspiracy -- but the ending is a bit anticlimactic. I won't say more for fear of spoiling the book.

Still, Extras is a well written Young Adult novel, with a great premise, complex characters, and page turning suspense. Five stars.

The newest book in the Uglies series, this one takes place in Japan a few years after Tally has freed the planet from the mind control it was under. This book follows Aya Fuse, a kicker in Japan. Since the mind rain, Japan has leapt into advancing itself in as many ways as possible to make up for the fact that for 3 centuries there was very little advancement. They are set up on a system of popularity, the more popular you are; the better everything you have is. Thus we have different groups: Kickers look for new stories to report, to kick. Tech-heads: people that made new technologies and showed them off. Surge-monkeys: People that liked to change the way they looked constantly. Reputation Bombers: Cliques that would chant a member's name as much as possible to get the member's number up. NeoFoodies: Those that made up new food and new ways of eating them. The more you are paid attention to, the higher your number goes.

Aya is doing a story on a new group, one that wants to stay under the radar: the Sly Girls. Aya saw them mag-lev riding on the trains one night and wants to find out more about them. To do so, she becomes a part of the group and uncovers something a lot bigger then a group of girls doing tricks. It looks like a group of people are using the old hollowed out mountains that were made to protect world leaders, to bulid something. Something that looks an awful lot like missiles the Rusties had in their time.

I like this series, it's interesting and I look forward to seeing if there's going to be more.

What happens after everything you take for granted in the world completely changes forever? Lots of ideas come forth and are explored.

It's now a few years after Tally Youngblood brought about the end of the Prettytime. Half a world away from Tally's city, Aya's city is full of people bent on fame. Everyone's fame is constantly measured, and everyone is always acutely aware of their relative fame. Aya is 15, a nobody with a low face rank, who is intent on being at least as famous as her older brother. To achieve fame, she is what amounts to a citizen journalist: reporting on interesting things that she sees in her life, hoping that others will read and link to it.

Aya observes an elusive and secretive clique of girls called the Sly Girls. They pull hair-raising tricks which no-one else does. Aya wants to report their story, and so convinces them to let her join. In the process of one of their tricks, they discover a huge secret. In the process, Aya's true goal is uncovered. The Sly Girls agree that the secret they have discovered is too important to keep hidden, so allow Aya to report it while they go underground. Aya reports it, and is instantly famous. Her reporting draws the attention of the now-undercover Tally. Aya and Tally join up, and learn the true secret behind what Aya has observed.

With Tally as a secondary character, she becomes a lot less sympathetic -- seen from the outside, she's rude, harsh, and needlessly violent. Aya can see some of Tally's struggles, but obviously most of that occurs only within Tally's own head. The novel is an interesting discussion of the perils of fame and those who seek it. I didn't find this book quite as engrossing as the previous books set in this universe, but I still devoured it.

Creswell is truly an expert on qualitative inquiry, evidenced by his ability to break down the information into concepts that are easy to digest. I am beginning to draft the research proposal for my dissertation (PhD in Psychology), and this book has been a tremendous help in selecting the methodology that best fits my research problem. If you are just beginning your dissertation or if you need scientific guidelines to stay on track, this book is well worth the reasonable price.

This book is helpful in explaining the different approaches to qualitative methods. The comparison charts in the book helps you to compare and contrast against the methods and helps in choosing a method to undertake your research study.

It arrived ahead of time and in condition advertised

This book would be best used as an introduction to qualitative research methods. It provides a broad overview of five qualitative strategies; however, if you are thinking of conducting qualitative research, this text is insufficient.

We need this book for our masters in educational psych. I understand there is now a 2nd edition, 2007 we should be asking for. I'll order this one I guess directly from school.

Hope this helps.

Ann

Very interesting and readable book about childrearing differences in different social classes. As a parent, it reminded me that there are different ways to approach parenting, and that a particular way isn't necessarily "better" than the others. Observations and conclusions drawn seemed accurate for my situation. I appreciated her non-judgemental attitude. Only downside is that the actual fieldwork was conducted over 10 years ago - however, from my perspective it is still very relevant. I would recommend it.

I am a university student who purchased this textbook for a class. It came exactly as the seller said. I will use this service in the futute.

Lareau provides a very descriptive account of the social resources available to middle class, working class and poor families and children. A useful tool for teachers and administrators who wonder why some parents are not able to make it to PTA, parent/teacher conferences, sporting events, ect.

Everyone knows that socioeconomic status is related to academic success, but not many books have examined the lives of kids outside of school in detail to reveal how differences in social class are related to differences in use of language, organizing time, dealing with authorities, family disputes, and doing homework.

I'm a professor in a graduate school of education, and it was important to me that Lareau was a careful researcher as well as a clear and lively writer. She studied 12 families, each with a fourth-grade child. Half were white, half were black. Half were from low social positions, and half from relatively high social positions. Lareau found that the upper-middle class families deliberately stimlated their child's development and conveyed a sense of entitlement, whereas lower class families believed that kids matured "naturally" -- regardless of race. I found it so persuasive and well-written that I'm assigning it to my students.

I read this book for a class about the achievement gap. I really liked how this book examined the achievement gap from a socioeconomic point of view. Lareau's case studies of families from varying races and social classes made her research easy to read and interesting. Her analysis of two different parenting styles-concerted cultivation and theory of natural growth-points out the implications each style has on children's performance in school, their interactions with adults, and later success in searching for jobs/careers. This was a great read for school or just for fun.

I placed this order on a Thursday and was starting school on the following Monday, so I knew it might not get here in time. But after reading the reviews saying how fast people have gotten their books I took a chance and just ordered it. Sure enough it was here Monday morning. Thanks so much!

Good price and fast shipping. Although class required it, I never opened it. Shipped in great condition though. I plan to pass it down to a freshman.

I read the previous edition of this book in Spring of 2004 for one of my Enlgish courses in college and it literally changed my life in many shapes and forms. My intellectual knowledge has expanded tremendously on the issues of gender, racism, racial prejudice, ethnic cultures, sexism, and classism thanks to this great scholar book. On my 22nd birthday I was given this new edition and I am glad a new edition was released with more updates and information.

I recommend this book to any person interested in those issues and concepts that shape our everyday life and our sociological evolution as humans. I am a university student of history and I have found this book to be a valuable tool for research papers and self-education.

I strongly recommend this book. If you are willing to read on the social issues that are absolutely necessary to understand our political, social and economic system, please read this book.

The "RCG" text edited by Rothenberg is truly a gem. It offers a myriad of perspectives from all Americans not just those with doctorate degrees or trapped in their ivory towers. I have used the text for my courses and have not had one student indicate that it was a nothing book or that they did not learn something of value from the book. Moreover, when the book is updated, the publisher and editor put an effort into demonstrating the changing landscape that is race, class, and gender bias in the "United States of America."

the order matched the product description perfectly and i got my book in 2 days as promised. i was left extremely satisfied with my purchase.

This text is easy to read, easy to understand and therefore not intimidating as far as Stats Texbooks go.

This book is a good but it truly does not cover biostatistics as well as Clinical Epidemiology by Fletcher or Designing Clinical Research by Stephen Hulley. I think that the other two books are a better buy for your buck. This book is well written but very specific in whom it will appeal to--namely those users who need assistance in the use of the computerized statistical packages.

The book was brand new and arrived very promptly! The only thing I would caution you when buying this book, is that is does NOT include the CD with it...so research a little further before purchasing. Overall, great experience and a great book!

This book really helped to simplify much of the statistical information that I received in class. I warn that some chapters are more digestible than others but overall it is a good book for someone who is likely to struggle in a statistics class.