Social Sciences Books

Now in a fully updated fourth edition, John Relethford's The Human Species: An Introduction To Biological Anthropology is divided into three major sections: Evolution and Diversity in Human Populations; Our Place in Nature; and Human Evolution. Updated coverage of the fossil record focuses on broad general groups of early hominids; principles of miroevolution show shown as they apply to the modern human species; the concept of race is thoroughly discussed from a biological and evolutionary perspective; and new interpretations of the number of species of early Homo and Neanderthal DNA are explored. The Human Species is an ideal introductory text for students of anthropology, and informative reading for any non-specialist general reader with an interest in the contemporary status of research in human evolution today.

I am an archaeology professor who has used this book as a text in my human origins class. No, it is not a mystery-scifi read - but it does a quite decent job with a difficult topic.

This book was required for my Intro to Anthropology class. It was easy to read and follow. Since the class was a required general education class, I had to go into the class with an open mind about what I was required to learn. I did not feel as if the book was attempting to influence my thoughts or beliefs. The book is organized effeciently and productively. I did not get bored reading it.

Much of the focus in this book centers on two issues:

1) There are no such thing as human "races,"

and 2) Humans evolved from apes and "creation scientists" and "intelligent design" theorists are boogie-men up to no good.

The book totally ignores research pointing to the contrary regarding the differences between human races and does not go into any detail why there are different ones. Races formed or "evolved" in adaptation to their environments and created different cultures to express themselves and survive in their environments to the best of their ability. Humans were created by God and this book only shows how difficult the fossil record is to interpret. It is unknown how many different hominids existed and to what species each fossil belonged and what specimins constitute "man" or "Homo sapiens sapiens" or not. If anybody is interested in how ultra-left political ideals influence texbook writing and distribution look no further than this tome.

I had to buy this for my college mythology class. It's a nice enough text, with many stories from many different cultures. Before each culture, we learn a little about the people and how their stories came about, which I thought helped me understand the stories more. My personal favorites were the Egyptian myths and the Greek myths, of which there were many. It also includes classics like 'King Arthur', 'Beowulf', and 'The Illiad'. It was interesting to note the similarities and differences between the cultures and their stories, many of which were being created at the same time years ago- but many miles apart.

As for the flaws this book has, there is one major one. While I'm sure the translators translated to the best of their ability, if I had to read "flooded their hearts" one more time, I think I would scream. Okay I get it, they're happy, filled with joy, ecstatic, delighted.... but really? "Flooded"? So maybe that was the literal translation, but couldn't the editors have changed it a few times so that the readers didn't die from the repetition?

Overall I would recommend this book, especially if you're interested in mythology. Just be aware that there are many different interpretations of myths, and the ones that are in this book may not be the most well known. Additionally I'm not sure if they cut out some parts because they knew this would be a school text. If you know the story of Osiris and Isis, you know that there was one piece of his body that a fish ate... that part of the myth isn't in this book- I guess because they deemed it unappropriate? There is a newer edition out however, which isn't exactly better than this one. At the very least, I had hoped they didn't use the word "flooded" so much in that one... But sadly not so. The new version is the same, with some additional stories included like: "Esfandyar", "Chi Li", "Jason and the Golden Fleece" among others. (If you need the newer version for class, you could still get away with buying the cheaper 2nd edition and then just copying certain stories from a fellow classmate's book. The newer is $43 with this one being around $13!)

(Originally reviewed for "Kathleen's Book Reviews")

Unfortunately, this is about as good as it gets if you want students to read myths (rather than reading ABOUT myths) and give them some cultural variety. The alternative for an instructor is putting together a prohibitively expensive reader, or requiring a whole list of books, or depending on students to read excerpts from books on library reserve (which they ordinarily won't do), or requiring other single-volume texts that are imperfect in their own ways. (Thury and DeVinney's "Introduction to Mythology," good as it is, is labyrinthine in its organization and would make my students leap off the nearest cliff; Roy Willis's "World Mythology" is all descriptions and summaries, with no narratives at all.)

This collection leaves much to be desired, though, and so do Rosenberg's interpretations. I'm not sure what her specialty is, but in many cases she relies on poor sources. For the Celtic material, for instance, she draws from reprints of 19th and early 20th century texts that are themselves inaccurate fairy-tale-style retellings of the actual texts. Her descriptions of Celtic belief are also grossly outdated: so far as we now know, the Celts were not sun worshippers and their major holidays were not at the solstices and equinoxes. Even the most cursory research would have led her to more accurate translations in scholarly journals, or she could have used the same sources that Gantz did for his much more accurate renditions of Irish myth in "Early Irish Myths and Sagas"--one of the many texts one would have to require in the multi-text syllabus.

Rosenberg is also enamored of the strain of thought that identifies every powerful goddess figure as a Great Goddess worshipped by the agricultural matriarchal societies of old, a type of society that no one has ever been able to show existed; even neo-pagans prefer the term "matrifocal," and most anthropologists and folklorists would argue even with that term. That leaves the question of whether Rosenberg's understanding of myth is late Victorian or New Agey or both, but it doesn't seem to be very scholarly.

I just recently purchased this for my daughter. The book was required for her college class and Amazon's price was about $30 less than the college bookstore.

I received my book a week before the class was over, luckily the local library was more reliable. Additionally they don't give refunds, maybe it's because they know there service sucks and would lose a lot of money......hmmmmm.

This collection of myths deserves less than one star! While there are a variety of myths, the versions are so awful that their true meaning is often missed. There are spelling, punctuation, and other mistakes throughout World Mythology. Even searching for the myths on the internet provides better versions that are not censored or over-edited. Take Beowulf for example, Ms. Rosenberg explains in its introduction that Anglo-Saxons used kennings in their works, which is true. However, they did not use kennings for every descriptive phrase. On the other hand, Ms. Rosenberg hyphenates so many words an all of the hyphens put together would equal the length of the large intestines stretched around a Swedish meatball! Which is ridiculous!!!! (Just like her interpretations.)

This book is very helpful for all the teachers....gives many learning tools needed in the classroom as well as information about teaching.

I've just started to read this book for one of my education classes. I love the insights that it shares with its readers. I am only beginning my career in education but am so fasinated with the many viewpoints and lessons to be learned. I feel it has been a very handy tool in assisting me with my classes. That is why I'd like to purchase this book.

In this book, the author examines the important discoveries and the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. She gives a description of the infamous Rosetta Stone, then continues with a brief history of the Ancient Egyptian civilization and religious beliefs. She also reports on the pharaohs and their accomplishments, including those of Akhenaton, Ramesses II, Cheops, Hatshepsut and Thutmose III. An interesting book for children ages 9 to 12.

This is a wonderful general introduction tot he study of ancient Egypt. Caution: This is really meant for grades 7 and up. The langauge is difficult for younger ones,even as a read-aloud. Also, the first chapter is mostly conjecture about the beginning of civilization in the Nile River Valley. You can skip it. Overall, it is fascinating reading.

Written for children who are independent readers, Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt was, nevertheless, a fascinating introduction to Ancient Egypt for all my children. My younger daughter was in first grade at the time and needed some help with the reading, but the stories themselves were of great interest to her. It was fun for me to see all three of them learn about the Rosetta Stone and other archaeological discoveries, most of which I hadn't learned about until I was well past childhood. It's amazing what children will find interesting when it comes wrapped in a story. Although some may regard the story-telling as somewhat fanciful (obviously we don't really know what most of these people really thought or felt), the author has succeeded in her quest to bring the attention of the reader into the context of the history she describes.

We bought this book along with the Greenleaf Guide to Ancient Eqypt, which listed it as one of its primary texts for children's history. I recommend that book, along Tony Allan's Time Traveller Book of Pharaohs and Pyramids, if you are going to teach your children the history of ancient Egypt. The Greenleaf book helps you organize your children's study with questions and projects (along with recommended resources), while the well-illustrated Time Traveller book helps the children visualize what they're reading about.

This book is another Landmark Books success!

Your children and you will learn, not just about Pharaohs, but about Egyptian history as well. The author utilizes stories well in order to draw the reader in and retain his interest. This is no mere book of facts that you will have to drag your children through; I found myself engaged and learning while reading it.

Of course, this is not the FULL history of Egypt, but all the main Pharaoh's and the events surrounding them are covered in detail. I take issue with a few of the assumptions the author presents that have been made by modern Egyptologists, but the error is in our current thinking on Egypt, not the author's work.

(For example, do you really believe that illiterate peasants worked from sunup to sundown and were pleased to do so for Pharaoh--to a man? Or, that modern scholars who have been able to find little evidence from the time period of Cheops know more about the opinion of the ancient Egyptians towards their Pharaoh than the Egyptians themselves did in 50BC?)

Some Pharaohs covered include Cheops, Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Akhnaton, and Rameses II. Also covered are the times of chaos in between the kingdoms, minor pharaohs and some queens, and times when Egypt was conquered and how this changed their kingdom. Even daily life of ancient Egypt is described within the text, making this an good stand-alone study on Egypt.

Summary: This is an excellent middle-school resource for a study on ancient Egypt that will provide information about most of the main events in a chronological manner. Highly recommended!

The mythology of Egypt can be fun, but the history is what really draws your attention. A clear part of Egyptian history is her pharaohs, and this book follows the line of ancient pharaohs with adequately-sized sections for each.
If you are looking for specific details this might not be very helpful, but it is very good for reading about the bigger stories.
This is a great book to help start young readers on their road to learning about Ancient Egypt.
A 'must have' for any Egypt-history-lover!

I read this book for a college class on Social Work, and although Loeb tells many meaningful and powerful stories, this is the same text I have heard before. If you read the first and last paragraph of each chapter you basically get the point. It's an easy read, and some may find it powerful, but I just found it repetitive and over-told.

I read Soul of a citizen which inspired me to action. I am now a volunteer activist in my neighbourhood and have formed a group of concerned citizens to negotiate and participate in our city's development plan. We have made an impact in the corporation and even had a few small successes along the way.

As many other reviewers I was asked to read this book as a part of a college course. My wife was recently assigned the reading in her MSW program. I do believe it has some value, but to a specific generation and type of activist. The book rarely (if at all) discusses a model of activism outside of that born from the peace and love movement of the 60-70s. If you are from these eras, by all means this is the book for you. If you are or will soon be a college student you will likely find little to connect with in the book. I suspect that its over use in courses at this time is a result of faculty promoting a book they feel applies to them greatly without thinking of how it applies to younger generations.

Paul is an outstanding voice in our world. Fantastic book helping bring hope to a difficult time for those of us who aspire to service. It is a challenge to keep engaged in service and Paul does provide hope. I also appreciate his newsletter and recommend it to those who appreciate his work. Great insights.

Must we indulge yet another collection of tripe in the guise of self-help? Didn't we get this sort of nonsense out of our systems a long time ago?

If you are the type who hangs around in the self-help section of Borders looking for something you haven't yet read, hoping the nice-looking man ordering the latte isn't as bad as your ex-husband, well, sure, pick this up. You can read it a few hours later after you've snuck that man past your sleeping children's doors and out to his car, and feel good about yourself and how wonderful a person you are for reading something like this.

For the rest of us that live with a real sense of morality, well, we know books like this are just excuses - a mechanism by which the anointed democrat leftists sanctify themselves. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure why I wrote this review. If it offended you, you're beyond help. If it rang true, you already know you don't want to get anywhere near this book.

The book came in perfect condition and in a very timely fashion. I was pleased.

First, the content -- Ibsen's play is as powerful and -- perhaps surprisingly -- as relevant as ever in today's supposedly more gender-equalized culture. Nora Helmer's predicament as a woman who faces the seemingly impossible choice between self-development and family is treated in a masterful way by Ibsen, who in the process manages to work in connections between bourgeois domestic culture, money, and spirituality.

But this edition is very functional -- no notes and a brief intro only. I have to say that I was a bit shocked because the new copy I ordered looked like it had been pulled out from the bottom of some old craters because it even had the faint impression of a sole on it!

A Doll's House is an outstanding play that brings up many topics into question, topics such as gender roles, love in marriage, and self fulfillment vs. family duties and responsibility. I think that Nora's and Torvald's characters are excellently drawn out to show the extremes of what could go wrong in a seemingly normal and happy home in 19th century Europe. Gender roles, even though they have changed drastically over the century, have roots from the beginning of time that stick throughout the years. Roots such as that women are more likely to stay at home and men are more likely to be the ones to work; even though these days women and men are legally and socially equal. Nora's actions in the play were courageous and good intentioned, even though they went against her husband's wishes. I really liked how she was created to be so naive that she did not realize that she had no life of her own, but despite that naivete, she still understood that something was missing. Torvald, on the other hand, knew perfectly well that Nora was not living life as people should, but out of his selfishness, he let things be as they were; he enjoyed life that way. What I liked most about this play was Nora's decision to live and to learn and be her own person, even though that meant huge sacrifice on her part and that of her family's. Was she selfish in doing what she did? That question is hard to answer. Should one live for themselves or is that right gone once they have children? Usually, I would say that a mother's duty to her children comes before anything, even her own needs; but what made Nora's situation so difficult was that she was a child herself, she never had the choice to live her life, once she had the chance it's good that she took advantage of it. The play was definetely worth the time spent reading it.

This was quite an entertaining play! Very nice - I like it! In all seriousness, it's a fascinating story that revolves around the ideas of gender roles and the negativity that is associated with creating such distinctions in society. `Tis a well constructed (translated) piece, despite originating in Norway.

The characters within speak frequently and frankly, constantly interacting with one another. The simplicity with which this play is written is used to convey a broad message about how society is harsh towards those who do not live up to their associated gender roles. For example, Krogstad is seen by the other characters as a scroungy rogue, minus the charm, associated with being a divorced father of two.

While it may not be the sort of drama that can draw a sleazy crowd with a brief tagline or an action packed trailer, it entices it audience with realistically portrayed characters in a convincing setting with an invigorating premise. Oh, and it speaks for universal human efficacy.

Ibsen's best known play about the strictures imposed on women by society. It may be from a hundred years ago, but the plight of Nora and her world is a cautionary tale about life now.

Nora is simple and yet there is a complexity about her. Her naiveté is both her charm and her undoing. Torvald, her husband, is prominent and she is to be showy--a living doll. Nora is to be a mirror that reflects her husband beautifully.

The plot concerns financial woes in the marriage--and secrets kept and broken--in these, the story is not unlike most stressful marriages.

We can speculate about what Nora could or should have done but the die is cast.

This play is good for helping younger readers understand that assumptions about roles in marriage are still there, and have to be understood and discussed in order to help a marriage thrive.

If you have a place where you can read this aloud, try it. Plays were meant to be spoken. The translation is superb.

Mark Penn is amazing. Or rather, his method of using polls to track small trends among average American citizens is unreservedly uncanny. You will catch yourself saying, "Who would've thought...[complete the microtrend] would spell ___ for America?"

As if identifying Soccer Moms wasn't an amazing enough feat for Penn, he now has identified 75 trends we should watch out for, that could really change America as we know it currently. I think one of the biggest microtrends I remember is Internet Marrieds - or people who meet on the internet and eventually get hitched. What does that mean for their kids? Will they be on chatrooms 24/7 until they forget about dinner? Will that encourage them to find a relationship by surfing the internet, rather than someone they know at school?

Seriously, you might even identify yourself with one of the microtrends. The strength of a microtrend is not so much in the numbers as it is in the passion - and that may enlarge its sphere of influence as more are encouraged to "be who they are."

Do what reviewer Gaetan Lion says: read the introduction, then the conclusions, then skim the 75 micro groups he describes and read the ones that interest you. I was delighted to learn that some of my own lifestyle choices are microtrends. (It's not just me! I'm not a freak!) And I learned some very interesting and surprising things (I had NO idea that tattoos and unnecessary plastic surgery were so completely mainstream). If you were looking for new small business ventures to try, knowing about these 75 groups could give you some great ideas on a market to tap. This book provided a very pleasant evening but it's a skimread intro, with few indepth conclusions.

"Microtrends" is very informative. It looks at the beginnings of new trends by looking at some which may initially only show up in 1% of population samples. The reason 1% is used is because with populations so large, 1% can be a very large number, especially with the flattening of the world, where even isolated minorities can connect so easily via the Internet, etc and generate critical masses. The author, Mark Penn, is a polling expert and relates that numbers will almost always take you where you want to go if you know how to read them. The book is an easy read with about 3 -4 pages for each of the 75 'microtrends' covered. All were interesting, but a few caught my eye.

1. Sex-Ratio Singles. Because the percentage of single women is increasing and historians have documented that a society with too many unattached men leads to war, will a society with too many unattached women lead to peace?

2. Number Junkies. Americans love numbers, but not arithmetic. Despite the popularity of TV shows like 'CSI' and 'Numb3rs' and movies like 'Good Will Hunting', 'A Beautiful Mind' and 'The Da Vinci Code', Harvard last year only had 77 math majors out of 6700 undergraduates.

3. Eurostars. Since European couples are having less kids and since only and oldest children tend to be highly motivated, perfectionists and inclined to leadership, Europe's youth will be an especially talented group. The author notes that every US astronaut was an oldest child.

4. Aspiring Snipers. In a small poll of CA youths, 1% looked to be snipers in ten years. Sure, this could be troublesome, but since snipers, besides being so talented, are more needed in urban situations in war and is a more moral way to kill than bombing, since bombing kills so many innocent victims. Previously, one would have expected more youths to aspire to be military pilots. Perhaps video games caused the change. There is much to think about, here.

5. Protestant Hispanics. Which country sends the most Protestants to the US? Mexico. Interesting!

A good book about trends in this current time---2008. This book's relevance will last a year. It is insightful and well composed and made for a straightforward read.

This is a really fun and fascinating book. Penn's theory is "the Devil is in the details." Don't look for overarching trends that end up being vapid and inaccurate. Look instead for the hundreds of small trends under the radar screen that in combination radically changes society.

To enjoy this book read the introduction and the conclusion first. Then, cherry pick the trends you are most interested in. In the introduction, Penn outline his theory of the 1% threshold. By the time 1% of Americans do something this represents a huge cluster of 3 million people that is worth paying attention to. Within the conclusion, Penn makes sense of all those disparate trends. That's where he explains how our society is becoming increasingly fragmented because of the growth of choice in lifestyle, values, and religions. Thus, many trends are contradictory. We live in an increasingly secular world with a rise in religions. Both trends (secularism and religion) thrive simultaneously. Each trend he analyses is a stand alone short paper on a specific subject. At some point, you may run out of trends you are interested in. You don't have to read all 73 trends to enjoy the book.

Within each trend analysis, Penn first observes the data and how that trend emerged and came to be. Next he outlines what are the trend's implications. The people representing that trend often make up a niche associated with the creation of new markets, voting block or cultural influence.

Sometimes, you may think several trends converge. In other words, the emergence of single women must correlate to the surge in Cougars (women with younger boyfriends) and Wordy Women (successful career women in law, journalism, PR, and advertising). These women may be all the same ones: single-successful-liberated. Another potential convergence is the Long Attention Spanners, DIY Doctors, Swing Voter, and Sun Haters. Here you have a mature educated crowd that likes to think for themselves especially when pertaining to their health and politics.

Many of his trends refer to entire books. His `Educated Terrorists' trend relies on Alan Krueger's What Makes a Terrorist: Economics and the Roots of Terrorism (Lionel Robbins Lectures). Similarly, his `Shy Millionaire' liens on The Millionaire Next Door.

On the other hand, other trends are truly original. I had never heard of the Do-It-Yourself Doctors. These people research their symptoms, render their own diagnostics and administer their own cure. They have changed the patient-doctor relationship to one of retailer-customer. The doctor is just there to facilitate procurement of prescription drugs, tests, and surgical intervention when necessary. Just as the overall population, they distrust the medical establishment. Trust in the latter has decreased from 77% in 1966 to only 33% currently.

His depiction of the `Impressionable Elites' is also counterintuitive. It is the higher income and better educated that care more about personality and less about issues in Presidential Elections. This is just the reverse of what we believe. The archetype is star journalists and newscasters who are certainly wealthy and educated. But, they focus on sound bites, looks, hair cuts, and other trivia. Apparently, the rest of us are more concerned about substantive issues such as foreign policy, health care, education, and economic competitiveness. Penn deplores the advent of the 527 advocacy organizations and Elite Donors who give readily $10,000 a pop to affiliated political groups. Given these are funded by the Impressionable Elites; they foster more trivia than substance on our political debates.

His chapter on the power of the swing voter is excellent. Independents have increased from 25% to 33% of the voters over the past 50 years. He indicated how Karl Rove strategy of rallying the conservative base failed in the 2006 mid-term election. However, Karl Rove did not have much of a role in this election. But, he sure did in both 2000 and 2004. Penn makes the argument that one independent voter amounts to two polarized voters because they represent a swing in the numbers. He is right. But, the counter argument is that it is a lot more difficult to convince an independent voter to change his mind than to tell your base to just show up and vote. Nevertheless, this is an excellent section that parallels very much the equally fascinating work in Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America (Great Questions in Politics Series) (2nd Edition) (Great Questions in Politics)

His chapter on active, employed elders suggests the fiscal stress on Social Security will be less than conveyed by the pundits. His chapter on the aging of Europe is also interesting. The median age of Europeans is expected to increase from 37.7 years to 52.7 years by 2050. While for Americans it will remain stable around 36 years. This has obviously dire fiscal implication for Europe. But, he thinks the next generation of Europeans will solve the related problems as they will be a generation of confident, problem-solving, achieving only children. This sounds a bit facile, but interesting nonetheless.

As he mentions in his conclusion, trends often have counter trends. There are more Muslim terrorists. But, there are also more Moderate Muslims in America. That's a fascinating trend he uncovers. He also outlines the drastic difference between the American vs European Muslims. The American ones are moderate, well-integrated, educated, successful, and prosperous. The European ones are disenfranchised, radicalized, and unemployed. This is a fascinating subject that has been covered by many equally interesting books including: While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within and American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion.

This book was delivered to me very quickly and in very good condition. I am glad I purchased this book. It was a very good experience.

on time delivery. book was in perfect shape!! I would order again from this seller.

The laboratory manual is very helpful. It is to be used with the Seventh Edition of Puntos de Partida.