Social Sciences Books

Nothing worse than a text that tries to impress with big words just because they can. The writing flowed well and editing seems to have been well done. I thought the pictures were nice and the book was inspiring. I would say the only flaw is that this time of flimsy paperback is really gonna warp with use. The Cognitive, etc. subchapters were divided and labeled which made classwork easier.

I am reading this book for my Sociology class and it has completely changed the way I look at society. A must read

This book was required reading for an undergraduate sociology course for Human Relations majors (sociology course for sociology/education/psychology). It was an eye opening experience because the readers/continuous learner is encouraged to step inside the corporate framework that directly affects our ideas and acceptance of an ideology of busines, etc based on the McDonald's corporate culture.

Our class found it powerful reading and most were challenged to think about and ask, "what are we really doing to improve our lives, culture and global community?"

I read this book hoping for a fair and balanced critical review of modern business. I found it to be little more than an attempt to justify a position that "all big business is bad". While that may be true, Ritzer spends a decent portion of the book using invalid arguments to support it.

For example, Ritzer claims that McDonalds hires young people "because their minds are more easily controlled than adults" (no mention that they worked cheaper), and was critical that McDonalds did not foster "creativity" on the job. Personally, I don't want teenagers to be creative with my food . . . and it seems it's not a bad idea that they learn a little discipline at work and as they mature and learn to make better decisions they can find jobs to be creative in.

Another criticism Ritzer uses is that universities "control" professors by setting a time schedule for classes - this is obviously not an attempt to control professors; it is instead the only way students can attend more than one class per semester.

Maybe I got turned off in the first chapters with his comparison of McDonalds to Hitler's gas chambers, could he have found something a little less sinister to compare it to?

That said, the argument that society is irreversibly changed because of industrialization . . . for better or for worse is certainly is a valid point . . . I just want to hear it argued with a little more critical review and common sense.

In his book, "The McDonaldization of Society", George Ritzer writes of McDonald's as a catalyst that provoked rapid and significant changes throughout the fast-food industry and in multinational businesses, changes that directly and circuitously affected people and society in positive and negative ways. However, Ritzer contends that McDonaldization has contributed more negatively to society than positively. It is rare that such an erudite study can also be so readable by the public.

Many people can easily recall the long lasting societal effects of such creations as the fax, the World Wide Web and email, the effects of global warming, the passing of NAFTA and so on, but few have considered the influence of a fast-food franchise such as McDonald's. When people think of McDonald's, they envision the fast-food giant of the industry - serving up their famous "Big Mac", fries, and milkshake. Few people can imagine of the impact of McDonald's upon society, but in "The McDonaldization of Society", George Ritzer illustrates these changes in a clear concise examination of this phenomenon.

Ritzer writes of the many industries that have strived to emulate McDonald's success by utilizing their system of operation, companies like Pizza Hut, Dominos, Wendy's, Toys R Us, Eye Masters, USA Today and other newspapers (McPapers) and so on. There are a host of other industries that have fashioned themselves after the McDonald's mold, like McDoctors, Books-on-Tapes, McBanks, ATMs, and so forth. These and many other industries are viewed as direct by-products of McDonaldization. However, Ritzer makes it clear that Ray Kroc (McDonald's CEO) neither created the "McDonald's principles nor the idea of a franchise. Ray Kroc's genius was in the way he combined many of the ideas of bureaucracy, the McDonald brothers, and other franchises into the McDonald's franchise of today.

The central theme in Ritzer's book is the "enabling" and "constraining" affects of McDonaldization and how this phenomenon has changed parts of society both in the United States and abroad - from private and public industries to its citizenry. Ritzer contends that McDonald's success is a direct outcome of their implementation of a kind of bureaucratic system that involves the concepts of "efficiency, quantification, predictability, and control" (rules and regulations). This system, according to Ritzer, results in striking changes throughout society, dehumanization of employees and to a great extent even control over consumers. Ritzer considers these four components to be at the heart of McDonaldization and therefore covers the concepts in separate detailed chapters.

Ritzer views McDonald's as a metaphor for bureaucracy with all the benefits and drawbacks of bureaucracies. Bureaucracies function under the same principles of efficiency, quantification, predictability, and control and in Ritzer's view "[w]e must therefore look at McDonaldization as both "enabling" and "constraining." McDonaldized systems enable people to do things they were unable to do in the past (work faster, efficiently, have more free time, etc.). However, these same systems also keep individuals from doing things that they would otherwise do (be creative, have quality time....). George Ritzer writes that "[t]he success of the McDonald's model suggests that many people have come to prefer a world in which there are few surprises". McDonaldization is a "double-edged" sword working for and against people.

Ritzer is more concerned with the social impact of McDonaldization than he is in documenting the history of McDonald's as the goliath of the fast-food industry. Nevertheless, in presenting his case, against McDonaldization, Ritzer succeeds in debunking many of the misconceptions concerning Ray Kroc and McDonald's. He reminds his reader that Mac and Dick McDonald were the originators of McDonald's. It was the McDonald's brothers - not Ray Kroc ? that created the concept of assembly line procedures, cheap prices, short menus, and the idea of fast food.

The reader will learn that bureaucracies function under the concept of "rationality" and how this concept can be found in virtually all forms of bureaucracies. Ritzer also posits that systems based on rationality invariably result in irrationality (all bureaucracies suffer from the "irrationality of rationality") and he links this concept to McDonaldization. Ritzer conveys his concerns with the role played by bureaucratic systems that affect and/or limit interaction among, individual, how they create a robotic state in workers, how bureaucracies stump creativity, freedom of choice and expression and so on.

As support for his contentions on bureaucracies, Ritzer discusses Max Weber's writings on bureaucracies. McDonald's is amplification and an extension of Max Weber's theory of rationalization. Ritzer makes the connection between efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control to Max Weber's theory of bureaucracy in which bureaucracies function by Weber's concept of formal rationality. According to George Ritzer and Max Weber, economics may be at the forefront of all bureaucracies (rational systems) in one form or another; this is Ritzer's opinion concerning McDonaldization.

"The McDonaldization of Society" envelopes concepts in sociology, psychology, politics, and economics, such as, role playing, rituals, behavior modification, reward and punishment, dehumanization, hierarchies, deviancy, rational irrational systems, formal structures, cost v. profits, quantity v. quality and so forth. At the end of the book, George Ritzer outlines some strategies that people can use to fight, resists and/or limit McDonaldization in their lives ? some ideas are logical and others radical. Ritzer's writing on McDonaldization, its concepts and affects on society makes for surprising and enlightening reading.

McDonalds's is G. Ritzer's perfect paradigm for explaining the actual structure of our planet. He has built his portrait on Max Weber's rationalization concept. This concept expresses man's search for the optimum means to a given end by rules, regulations and larger social structures. Its driving force is economics (capitalism).
This concept affects virtually all aspects of our society all over the world: work, education, health care, leisure, transport, sports, politics, justice, religion and the family. It shows a planet centered on rational consumerism.
The ingredients of the system are efficiency, calculability, predictability and nonhuman technologies for controlling people. It was greatly helped by technological breakthroughs like automobiles, TV, the computer, internet and lasers (DVD) and by fundamental changes in Western societies (single parent families, working women, higher mobility, increasing disposable income, time savings, mediatization and advertising).

But Max Weber foresaw also the lurking irrationalities, the dehumanization and homogenization, which expressed themselves in environmental and health problems (air pollution), McJobs (disenchantment, false friendliness), traffic jams, bureaucratization.
McDonaldization produces the perfect way of life for people who, as Nietzsche said, use the wrong conjugation: they don't live, they are lived.

For G. Ritzer, McDonaldization is the `grobalization of nothing': a world dominated by the imperialistic ambitions of nations, corporations and organizations, whose main intent is growth of their power, influence and profits. `Nothing' is a social form that is generally centrally conceived, controlled and comparatively devoid of distinctive substantive content.'

The author would like to see a more deMcDonaldizated world (see the many recommendations at the end of the book), but McDonaldization is still on the march, certainly in developing countries.

This book is a crucial, superbly documented, text for all those who want to understand the world we live in.
A must read.

"Medieval Europe - A Short History" by Charles Warren Hollister, © 1990, 1982, 1978, 1974, 1968, 1964.

This book is an amazing little textbook. I was pleased to read the explanation of the growth and development of modern European nations. The most surprising part is the growth of civilization throughout the time we were taught were the Dark Ages. Something that is slurred across in most history classes is the age of Charlemagne, about 400 common era (c.e.) to about 900 or 950 c.e. I guess that it is not talked about because not much happened but invasions by Vandals or Attila or Saxons, but there were farms and communities developing (this is the era that beget villains from villagers). There was starvation, missionary work, development of monasteries and convents, etc. This book explained all this and more, making it a lot more interesting just by what it included.
There are not a lot of footnotes because this is a survey book, not a scholarly one. What is written about is well known and accepted as undisputed, so the footnotes would be unnecessary. He does have extensive bibliographies between sections for additional reading for concentrating on those issues or subjects. He does use footnotes to direct the reader to where he discusses the person or place otherwise, and to chide himself for errors he corrects. It is also very good that he explains where some of the names come from: Charlemagne or Plantagenet or Louis for example.
All in all, a really enjoyable book to read.

I used this book in an introductory medieval history class. The narrative in offered by this book is straightforward, coherent, and for the most part, an easy read. The chapters have clearly defined themes and chronologies, and the authors do a good job exploring many issues, events, figures, and concepts of the medieval ages.

At times it was difficult to keep track of all the various names, as many medieval figures shared similar names. I felt the authors could have done a better job laying out more distinct biographies of some of the figures.

There were also times when I had to reread parts because I lost interest due to the tendency of the book to devolve into a simple reiteration of events, ie: The church did this, then certain kings responded in this manner, which caused this event. Whether this is the fault of the writers, something endemic to the material, or my own indolence is debatable, but I still feel the book would benefit with some more color/vibrant writing.

Overall, I found it useful in my studies because it offered coherent organization (making content easily accessible), and it was an easy read (for the most part.)

This book is a great overview of medieval Europe. It is packed with information and is a dense read, but worth it.

I bought this to take on a trip around Western Europe. Mr. Hollister has excellent prose. Normally, history books are written in a convoluted style which is indecipherable and dry. Medieval Europe however, is infinitely readable and a great resource. It was a pleasure to read. I will definitely look for more of Mr. Hollister's work and would welcome the recommendation of other works by good history authors.

I am a graduate student who has recently begun teaching first-year undergrads. The Hollister and Bennett book is the main text book for a Medieval Period General course, and the students use it to supplement their core readings. The textbook, a general synthesis of the history of Western Europe, is decent and fairly comprehensive, written and updated by experts in the field. However, it has been a long time since I've read a general textbook, and found the lack of footnote references a bit unnerving. The book does, however, provide lists for further reading at the end of each chapter, but these are very selective.

I used this textbook in my "business math" course.

The course covered material that I'd already mastered in high school, so I rarely used this book.

When I had to look up a few fuzzy areas, though, it helped me. It did a poor job of explaining Chapter 7, as I recall.

This review is from the perspective of a sociology instructor and refers to the 4th edition of the textbook and reader. I've used this pair of texts twice in a Sociology of Family course at a medium-size, medium-quality Midwestern university. The textbook is the most accurate, complete, well-organized, and sociological of the many family textbooks I've reviewed. However, I don't plan to use it again. It is too challenging for my students. Cherlin assumes a basic knowledge of sociological concepts and social facts that my students don't have. They become confused and frustrated when reading. There is a good website associated with the textbook that gives students study help, but I can't use the instructor version because of bad publisher customer service (tech support and my publisher's rep have been passing the buck about who should help me for the past month). I'd recommend this book if your students have the basics in place before the course starts. I plan to look for something written for students who don't. UPDATE Spring Semester 2008: I am still using the newer edition of this text and reader and providing more basic-sociology and explaining-Cherlin's-points during lecture. I haven't found anything I like better but am still looking. Website problems are ongoing and publisher support continues to be nil.

The book I bought had 3 sheets slightly torn, fortunately on the edges.
My son and I bought over 100 books from Amazon during the last few months, all from Amazon France except one (Women Who Love Too Much)from the US, for which I had to pay transport cost equivalent to the price of the book. I wanted to cancel the US order five minutes after I had realized the error, so that I could make the same order with Amazon France, but the lady on the phone said it was too late to cancel.Big company like Amazon should not have acted like that. Can you imagine a little book like that costed almost 12 euros! I hope Amazon can improve in this respect. Wishing you all the success. An Nhon NGUYEN

This book saved my life. I was a woman who loved too much. This book led me to Al-Anon and a sane way of live. I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking recovery.

This book was a life saver for me. I was in an abuse marriage and the insight from the book was very valuable. I highly recommend it.

Ruth

I read this book about 25 years ago and learned so much. It opened up my eyes. Now, in 2008, I just purchased it for my 21 year old niece. She is shocked by how much this book is "her". I told her "it's all of us women".
Fran S.

One of the very best, if not the best, books on why women seek out inappropriate relationships time and again. This book is valuable because it's not just for women who "act out" with men or behave in ways that might be labeled codependent. Some women may not act out with men to any significant degree, but may develop intense and unhealthy attachments to food, sex, alcohol, work, shopping, or any other external "thing" or behavior as a way to relieve deep emotional pain. If that sounds like you, it's likely you will find comfort in this book. Norwood identifies the behaviors, describes the patterns and underlying reasons, and then offers compassionate guidance and concrete steps for women who are ready to move beyond these behaviors to a more healthy way of living. If you can find a copy of the audiobook, I highly recommend getting it.

I finished this book, considering I hate reading and haven't read a book since high school, that should mean something. I'm not a fan of people shoving their opinions down my throat, but I picked this book up out of curiosity. And I had a feeling the author and I would agree on more things than disagree.

I really do place most of the blame of this countries problems, fear, irrational paranoia, and emphasis that we are all alone and need to depend on the government for protection on the media- the news programs specifically. They chose what to report on, they chose what slant to bring to the story, they leave out details, and hardly ever report on the honesty, humanity, and morality of man.

This book just confirmed what I already believed. Although it was refreshing to know that I'm not the only one that finds the media destructive. He touches on good points. Even things I wasn't scared of, but the American public may be concerned about. Some of his statements, seem to be unfounded and he could have backed them up more with facts. He can sometimes assume facts because of his personal beliefs. But overall the book was good. I don't feel the need to read it more than once though.

This book is great for the social and cultural notions of the last 20th and early 21st century. It speaks to an important and growing discourse of critiquing the media.

Some things haven't changed in the last ten years since this book was written. I do believe that the media has gotten worse over the years since this book was written. After reading this book, I am about ready to boycott the newspaper/TV medias but ... they still do provide a service to the public, so I can't just write them completely off yet. But this book has made that idea a temptation.

I orginally gave this book a four star but upon further reflection, I had to give it a three-star rating. I do believe it was well-written, researched as thoroughly as possible, but there's a taint of bias in his studies, or at least in the first half of the book. He mentioned his anti-guns bias repeatedly and after the third time of reading about it, I want to say, ok, I get your point. That bias left a shadow over the entire first half of the book that it made me weary of his points before I even finished the book. The bias would have been better if it was left alone after the first time he mentioned it.

Other than that, he validated his points with examples after examples throughout the entire book. The reader doesn't necessarily have to agree with his reasonings, but he does make good points about how the media ignores the facts and runs away with the scare tactics. After reading "Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over For Bush" and this book, I am even more inclined to think less of the media. There is a point that someone who works in the media said that rings true even back to my newsroom days: "News is what happens to your editors." (page 201)

But that doesn't excuse reporters and editors from creating scare tactics or sensational news to frighten people. Yes, sensational news sell copies, and it does seem that the media has forgotten their responsibility to the people as a whole, which is to provide unbiased reporting of facts and news to the public. I know that it is almost impossible to keep your own opinions out of it (which is why they have columnists), but to constantly provide news that frighten Americans without checking all the facts of the story, is in my opinion, just wrong.

This book is a must-read for aspiring journalists or for anyone who wants to be in the know. It is detailed and insightful. It will disgust the reader in spots and provide more information in other spots. It is not an entertaining book but one that will provide thoughtful musings on the state of the media these days. Some things just haven't changed in the last 10 years.

7/9/08

The vast majority of fears in The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things are irrational. People who are deathly afraid of plain crashes are probably a bit paranoid, considering their rarity. People who are very afraid of black men are probably racist, considering how much more common it is for black men to be victims than perps. The biggest new insight I received from Glassner's work was on Gulf War Syndrome. Glassner, a Sociology Professor at USC, convincingly demonstrates that improbability that GWS is the result of exposure to chemical weapons or any other destructive war technology. I will not delve into the specific reasons for GWS, but it is a common thread for a certain percentage of veterans in all modern wars.

Chapters on teen motherhood, AIDS, violent youth and homicidal mothers manage to be dull, despite public fascination (my own included) with such topics, covered ad nauseum in the media. The best part of the book is the cover, which is well done with the inventive title prominently featured. What should have been an excellent concept turns into a rehashing of known contradictions to common stereotypes. There must be dozens of people who could do this better, including the authors of Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything.

I got to thinking about people who pay to have their dogs on doggy Prozac...Or whatever it's called...They must have a FEAR that their dog is mentally ill I guess..Anyways...This is a really good book..I would put it in the "media watchdog" category...It's even better post 9/11....Tons of examples of fears..How they are created...By which so called "experts"...The real facts are then presented...Hey look..It's young black males that DIE the most...Not the ones you should FEAR about getting killed BY....You will never watch Dateline NBC the same again after reading this book....Isolated incidents made out to be sweeping epidemics.....I think the culture of fear is here to stay...read this book and learn how it works.

This is a wonderful book. I read it many years ago as a young person. And after becoming an adult I purchased it and read it again. My son read it when he was younger and he still keeps a copy at his home.
His son is reading it now. This is a book that everyone should read. It's a great read for blacks, because it's about blacks. However, this book is enlightening for anyone who dares to pick it up.
Great read!

This book has been a mainstay in Black Literature because the relevance of the content still apply, and have applied to every generation of African-Americans since it was originally published in 1933. I recommend this book to all African-Americans, young and old.

This is book a must have for anyone studying African American History. If you are building a library, it cannot be complete without this writing - this is one of the foundational cornerstones.

This book is such an eye-opening piece of work. I believe that people of all races can be motivated by this book.

Although copyright for this title is dated 1933, I found that the vast majority of the information therein, pertinent, applicable, and relative to our situation today. This book-as it has been said before-should be required reading for all Black Americans.

The analysis put forth by Dr. Carter G. Woodson on subjects like commerce, religion, and the value of an uncompromising education within our community, are profound.