Social Sciences Books

If you are a professor looking at this, do your students a favor and don't use this book. It is confusing, difficult to follow, boring, and a waste of money. Every student who has used this book says about the same thing, "I tried reading it for the first couple weeks but I stopped when it became obvious that I wasn't getting anything from it." I bet there are many copies of it out there with the first 100 pages highlighted but nothing after that. If you are a student buying this book for a class, I am sorry. I recommend buying supplementary material that is more approachable.

This is absolutely one of the best statistical analysis reference books that I've ever seen. It's easy to read, easy to follow and doesn't skip the minor steps that people several years out of the academia environment tend for forget. I highly recommend this handbook for anyone that is wanting to do Real Work in Real Time.

A business student interested in multivariate techniques seeks a book on regression and ANOVA that does not have involved/advanced mathematics. This book is an answer to that.

An earlier edition emphasised the Behavioural Sciences. I expect that this edition attempts to speak to a wider audience

This is probably the best experimental design and analysis text available out there. Unlike other texts (e.g., Winer et al.'s), it is writen as a book to be read rather than as a reference to be consulted sporadically. My graduate students all praise it for being just at the right level of intuitiveness-rigor. I suspect that it covers about 85-90% of the analysis issues that behavioral researchers face with respects to experimental data (e.g., from one-way ANOVAs to three-way mixed-design factorials, contrast analysis, elementary ANCOVA). For the rest (e.g., fractional designs, random-effects models), researchers should consult more technical (and less readable) texts such as Kirk's and Winer et al.'s. I only wished that the author would come up with a new edition--the current edition (the 3rd) was published in 1991--and that he would use a broader range of examples (e.g.,from social psychology as opposed to cognitive psychology only). Overall,however, it's a great reference.

I remember I odered this book with a hardcover, but what I recieved is softcover. I am using this book, and won't return it to you. But I hope next time, it won't happen to me again. Thanks.

The book is really good, and I love it. Only problem - it's soft cover + covers the issues in mostly the general sense, and I want some more specifics on the issues...
I heartily recommend the book.

James Lee Ray (Florida State at the time of writing Global Politics, Vandberbilt currently) has written a solid general introduction to international relations. Along with covering traditional INR theories and frameworks, Ray also introduces some more contemporary theories, including an extended section on the democratic peace theory

This textbook explores many issues that people do not want to discuss but the material is handled in a very sensitive manner. Coupled with 10 internet programs 30 minutes in length, this book will help you to make some life decisions as well as help you to discuss the material with others. Excellent book.

The text book is very accurate in response to Americas view of death.

this was a required book for my master's program and let me say this is a HARD book to read. The language is difficult to understand and it is just plain drab to read. It lacks creative examples and activites. The information is good, just not presented in an interesting manner.

This book is not very user friendly, a very tough read!

This book has some interesting and useful information. On the downside-it is very dry reading and can be quite boring. I found some of the information to be over my head.

This book is required reading in a graduate class I am taking and is an excellent resource. It gives a comprehensive look at Bilingual Education. It begins with an overview of bilingual education, then moves into specific programs and policies which include important court cases that shaped the face of education today. The historical view was particularly interesting! After chapters on language and culture, Ovando does a great job of explaining how to teach in different content areas. Anyone in the field of education will benefit from reading this book. It is well researched and written by someone with a deep understanding of bilingual education.

The authors emphasize relevent material and content towards the importance of "teaching in multicultural contexts". The excepts from teachers and students provide a personal connection. This book addresses issues of cultural diversity, Bilingual/ESL strategies, and provides a reference on laws and policies that have evolved to focus on today's changing educational settings.

This book is dense with thoughts and ideas, written in a looping structure that weaves the vast diversity of black women's voices into a colorful tapestry of intricate detail and contradiction. This is its strength, and its weakness. Collins specifically avoids exclusivity, and this means she includes a few... well, "out there" thoughts from others. Most notably, she cites Tuan on p 139 who asserts that people go to zoos to see monkeys copulate. But this is an extreme, and very rare. More commonly, she grounds these diverse thoughts in real-world experiences. Most impressively, she makes the case that intellectual thought is not limited to the academy, but must include all those who think seriously about their lives. This means that groups - such as Black women - who have been historically excluded from the academy can rediscover their own intellectual traditions outside of academia, and tie them all together. I am glad that I read this book. It has many perspectives I simply was not aware of before I opened it. While I may not agree with all of Collins' assertions, I definitely respect them. It is a dense book, but the very structure of it makes it accessible through its layering technique. Further, Collins writes in a unadorned style that makes absorbing unfamiliar viewpoints all the easier.

The book were in excellent condition and did not take long to arrive at home earlier than expected.

I knew little about the Black Feminist movement, when I first read this book over four years ago. It was part of a list of required books for a Black and Indigenous women's course through the school of Women's Studies. This school of thought has more involved in it than meets the eye. For starters, according to the very compelling and highly researched studies of Patricia Hill Collins, it came about in the face of great discrimination against, not only, African-Americans and women, but especially African-American women. They were looked down upon and objectified, due to their race, the means in which many African-Americans were forceably brought to the United States, as slaves (fodder for wealthy, white slave owners in their fields and in their children's nurseries, as well as their kitchens).

What works so well in its book is the acute insight and detail that Collins brings to her body of work. This book is really beautifully put together, and we get a sense of the evolution of Black Feminist Thought, through time. It's unbelievable to me that not more people have heard of this book, and I really think a formal movement needs to be started in schools throughout the country, to bring interracial consciousness to the masses, through literature. Read this book today.

Patricia Hill Collins exemplifies a practitioner's and theorist's point of view on black feminism as it relates to Africa American and our African sisters. She references critical and inspiring data and quotes from a varied repetoire of authors, historians, and philosophers. The author explains the context and format of her subject upon initial reading. This book also draws commonalities among the issues and concerns among African American women and our international sisterhood (i.e., African, Carribean, etc.,) It illustrates the social and cultural values among all groups, the commonalities among the values while focusing on the African American feminist aspect. This is a must read for any person, be it woman or not, African American or other. It brings about a social and cultural understanding that is pertinent to the "holonomy" of understanding and appreciating varied cultural, social and historical values and experiences while commencing to the building of community. Please add this title to your collection of literature. You won't be disappointed; if for nothing more than to open your world to receive another perspective.

I'm a gay white male and I loved this book! Collins does an amazing job presenting her compelling thesis, and I continue to thank Sociology in general for being the most daring, critical-thinking academic discipline ever. It's no surprise sociologists like Collins dare to speak out on gay rights issues (see her section on homophobia/heterosexism) - sociology is the only area of thought that consistently questions the status quo. In a day in age where so many (though by no means all!) African-American (heterosexuals) are horribly anti-gay and increasingly pro-greed/pro-capitalism, Collins stands out as a heroine for all peoples. I am still waiting for an openly gay hip-hop artist!! How cool would that be? I recommend this book to absolutely anyone. Five stars!

ALL WOMEN ESPECIALLY BLACK WOMEN SHOULD FEEL VERY PROUD OF THE KNOWLEDGE SET FORTH IN THIS BOOK. A STORY TOLD SO CLEARLY. MAKES ME WANT TO CRY.

The book opens eyes on things people often take for granted when studying history. The book is not just informative, it grabs you and doesnt let go! I recomend highly!

I received the book Women, Race, and class by Angela Davis. It arrived in record time and excellent condition. Fantastic service. Thank you so much, Sue

The author quotes a lot of notable historical figures to back her point and gives us truth that we aren't taught in school. It's a great read just for the history of black women in America, and a good starting point to delve deeper into the subject and do some research of your own. She just stated the facts and stats, and I can appreciate that. No overwording or overly bias opinions on the subject matter. I love that

Not since the works of Dr. W.E.B. DuBois have I encountered such in-depth work. This book is among Davis' early publications. Although the work is scholarly, it can be read by a wide audience. Research is extensive in three separate but intertwined issues that have contributed to human disparities around the globe. A shortcoming is that Dr. Davis confined the work to United States and Western Europe and, as a result, makes ethnocentric conclusions that are not applicable to a global perspective.

Annette Weiner has really captured the essence of the people of the Trobriand Islands in this ethnography. She was following in the footsteps of Malinowski a well known person in her field. She was not afraid to question his findings or contradict his beliefs. In the course of this ethnography, readers will come to know the culture of the Trobriand Islands. You will understand the importance of yams in their every day life. The rituals that you know see has odd will be proven to be spiritual and have more purpose that you could have ever imagined. You will learn in detail what the death of a Trobriander means to the entire community. Reading this book will leave you in awe of these people. You will learn of a culutre that is of matrilineal descent and what that means to them. This novel will open your eyes to a whole new world. A world of traditions and spiritual beliefs. The people of the Trobriand Islands will amaze you and you will walk away from this book with more knowledge and more respect for this people than you could have ever imagined.

The book is up-to-date and effectively presents the basic concepts. Deals with current power and sphericity concerns. Example SPSS-keyed analyses and APA-format results sections are especially valuable for research training. Uses post-hoc Tukey HSD test. Separate nonparametric chapters. The authors know their material (not always the case with statistics texts) and they provide a solid (higher-level) introduction. Good selection of topics and fairly thorough. Perhaps a bit wordy at times. One of the best available introductions. From a long-time teacher of statistics with no connection to authors.

As a grad student who is at present using this textbook (I am in spring quarter, 06), I will sum it up in two words "it sucks". I have taken three different statistic classes and I am using their textbooks to fill in the many blanks this textbook has.
There are two major problems, one is that it does not have a connection with statistic software. My instructor assigns the problems in the chapter exercises to be performed on SPSS. This textbook is not geared for SPSS; it is set up for the problems to be worked the old fashioned way--paper and pencil, with a hand calculator to be used. It does not work well with SPSS, as my classmates and I have complained about to each other.
The other is that the authors seem to assume that students who have signed up for statistical classes love stats. Wrong ! ! ! Most students dread statistics class, they jokingly call it sadistic class. This is the only class that many of us feel totally stupid in (remember, we are GRADUATE level students, so we are not stupid). We need a textbook that explains everything in simple terms, gives many examples and then explains the steps in detail. The problems should be up-to-date, and able to be used in SPSS software.
The book does not adequately cover many topics, and the one subject that ever stats student hates to deal with is Z-scores. And as usual, this textbook hardly mentions it, four pages in one chapter discussing how to do z-scores. Yet it is one of the most important methods a stats student needs to know how to do. Several of my classmates feel that this book was a waste of their money.

For basic statistics in undergrad it may be adequate, or for those who are knowledgeable of statistics this may suffice; but for regular statistic class students, this textbook fails the class.

This is an exceptional book. Another review says the book is not good with SPSS, which is strange because the book includes sections in all the main chapters that explains SPSS output. This book is great this way. The disgruntled student reviewer must have skipped these because they appear in special chapter boxes that (bad) students often skip over. The treatment of z scores (which is not all that crucial anyway - when was the last time you saw a z score in a research article) is outstanding, so the review just sounds like sour grapes to me.

This book explains statistics intuitively and gives great explanations and examples. It is written very clearly. After reading it, I was able to read and understand journal articles much better. It has special sections to tell you how statistics will be presented in research reports and how to read them. This is a great feature. This book helped me so much and I think it deserves seven stars!