Sociology and anthropology Books

Jane Goodall meets Carrie Bradshaw in Sticky, Sexy, Sad an insightful, empowering memoir by an anthropologist who lays her own life bare as she explores the cultural matrix of digital courtship.Lifelong luddite Treena Orchard was a newly sober woman...

In June of 2017, an international group of specialists in ethnopharmacology, chemistry, botany, psychology, and anthropology met to discuss their findings of the last fifty years and assess the potential future for investigations into traditional...

People in workplaces are more unhappy than ever before. Company cultures are cracking, and many harbour the worst in human behaviour. Individuals are scared to share their true thoughts. They don't really know anyone; building friendships...

The great board game revolution is here-- What do these games tell us about our society, our relationships, and ourselves? "Games, Jonathan Kay and Joan Moriarity show in this lively and insightful book, are not just fun and games: they allow us to...

People who met the inevitable with elan, unflappability, dignity, or physical courageWe all have to go sometime, so why not go in a manner that reflects well on your entire life? With humanity, insight, and occasional humour, author Matt Sturrock has...

From the author of Unsuitable for Females, shortlisted for The Sunday Times Football Book of the Year 2023.With the triumph of England's Lionesses at Euro 2022, the women's game has been in the spotlight like never before, enjoying...

Doctor, militant, political essayist, ambassador, teacher, journalist, pan-Africanist: Frantz Fanon represented a new model of engaged intellectual who sought to decolonise mid-twentieth-century thought, society and culture and move beyond the ideology...

Dreamwork is a book about the ideas, dreams, dreads and ideals we have regarding work. Its central argument is that, although we depend on the idea of work for our identity as humans, we feel we must disguise from ourselves the fact that we do not know...

Community-engaged practice is not an art form. It's not an add-on. It's a way of working; a deep collaboration.The Relationship is the Project features provocations, tools and practical tips for working with communities. This includes the ethics and...

This book is not about the tactical aspects of police work but the intensity of emotions accompanying a critical shooting. Rebecca's experience and research in suicide-by-cop brings a no-holds-barred approach and speaks to all sides of this issue. She...

A first-of-its-kind look at the outrage being directed at organisations across the globe and how leaders can respond to it.Outrage is everywhere on the left and on the right and many companies are finding themselves in the crosshairs. Go Fund Me was...

Immerse yourself in stories of gods and goddesses of the underworld and explore how themes of death, love, and revenge are depicted in folklore and mythology by different cultures around the world.Myths of the Underworld is a vibrant collection of ten...

Following up on his earlier best-seller, The Global Police State, this exciting new study by critically-acclaimed scholar and activist William I. Robinson offers a big-picture contribution to understanding contemporary global society in the aftermath of...

Globalised urban precarity in Berlin and Abidjan examines urban youth's practices of making do in digital economies, to understand how precarious working conditions reverberate in the coming of age in contemporary cities. Through a comparative analysis...

A philosopher explores the transformative role of wonder and awe in an uncertain worldWonder and awe lie at the heart of life's most profound questions. Wonderstruck shows how these emotions respond to our fundamental need to make sense of ourselves and...

A Selection of the Scientific American, History, and BOMC2 Book Clubs "An in-depth look at the anatomy and history of feet reveals their often overlooked importance in human evolution, medicine and art." -Science News "Stylish, informative, entertaining,...

Majestic, noble, brave lions, with their tawny coats and luminous eyes, have inspired countless stories, traditions and beliefs. Whether we are seduced by their beauty or drawn to danger, we want to be near them. No other animal has had such an enduring...

For centuries, flies have been seen as mankind's enemy, blamed for plagues, subject to public excommunication in the Middle Ages and campaigns of extermination during the early years of the twentieth century. This book tracks the representation of the...

England's Green explores how environmental concerns have shaped and reflected English national identity since the 1960s. David Matless covers themes including agriculture, nature, leisure, climate change, the Anthropocene, the folkloric, the...

The first comprehensive history of the Sami people of the Nordic countries and northwestern Russia. There is no single volume which encompasses an integrated social and cultural history of the Sami people from the Nordic countries and northwestern Russia...

The pieces in this volume voice the rage and helplessness sweeping through the Kashmir Valley while offering rare insights into the lives of those caught in the crossfire. This book is a timely collection of the most exciting writing that has recently...

"David Lindsay-Abaire has crafted a drama that's not just a departure but a revelation-an intensely emotional examination of grief, laced with wit, insightfulness, compassion and searing honesty." David Rooney, Variety "A beautifully observed new play...

"Jeet Heer more thoroughly and widely understands comics history and the perplexing binomial life of the cartoonist better than anyone who's not one. As well-versed in literature as he is in comics, he always gets at the peculiar, poetical texture of his...

A great gift for any golfer, whether or not he will ever visit Augusta National or see The Masters in person. As a caddy at Augusta National Golf Club, Tripp Bowden learned lessons about golf, life-and food.Here Bowden shares forty of his favorite...

The third edition of this bestselling book introduces readers to anthropology, and the world around it, by connecting important concepts to current global issues. A question-based approach encourages readers to understand specific issues in a broader...

The announcement of a serious diagnosis is a solemn moment when directions shift, priorities change, and life appears in sharper focus. It is also a moment when a story takes shape. It is a story we are able to imagine, even if we haven't experienced it...

Human beings have always moved for what they need until recently. We know how a lack of movement impacts our bodies but how does culture-wide sedentarism impact the world?Movement Matters is an award-winning collection of essays in which biomechanist...

Libertine London investigates the sex lives of women from 1680 to 1830, the period known as the long eighteenth century. It uncovers the various experiences of women, whether mistresses, adulteresses or those involved in the sex trade. From renowned...

Tribes and Politics in Yemen tells the story of the Houthi conflict in Sa'dah Province, Yemen, as seen through the eyes of the local tribes. In the West the Houthi conflict, which erupted in 2004, is often defined through the lenses of either...

"Roger Simon is among the many refugees fleeing blue state neoliberalism, and he's written the best account of our generation's greatest migration." -Tucker Carlson,fired Fox News host "As a citizen of Tennessee, I can attest to the fact that there is a...

Leadership for the Great Transition a changemaker's toolkit for cultivating personal and community resilienceThe Regeneration Handbook offers an abundance of insights, stories, tools, practices, and resources for experienced and aspiring changemakers to...

Discover tools and techniques for managing emotions, reactions and behaviour in this friendly, evidence-based book designed especially to help and support struggling, overstressed parents.As the millennial generation moves into their parenting years,...

In the 1960s and '70s, America spent $24 billion (around $150 billion in today's dollars) to land humans on the moon and 'win' the space race. And while humans took their first steps on an extraterrestrial landscape, protesters at Cape...

Why and how local coffee bars in Italy-those distinctively Italian social and cultural spaces-have been increasingly managed by Chinese baristas since the Great Recession of 2008Italians regard espresso as a quintessentially Italian cultural product-so...

The world is enamoured with Italy: its culture, art, food and fashion, its beautiful landscapes and famous cities - and, of course, its wine.From the ancient Greeks to the Medici, and from fascism to feminism, writer and wine expert Marc Millon reveals...

Are we confronting a new culture - global, online, individualistic? Or is our existing concept of culture in crisis, as explicit, normative systems replace implicit, social values?Olivier Roy's new book explains today's fractures via the extension of...

Mihir Bose, born in Kolkata shortly before Indian independence in 1947, still feels enormous gratitude towards Mr Crombie of the UK's Home Office, who confirmed his permanent resident's rights. After studying in Britain, Bose had dreamed of making a life...

The transformational possibilities of everyday hygiene and care practices In order to mitigate the worst forecasts of climate change, many of us need to make drastic adjustments to how we live and what we consume. For Kelly Dombroski, these changes must...

A sweeping account of male nurturing, explaining how and why men are biologically transformed when they care for babies.It has long seemed self-evident that women care for babies and men do other things. Hasn't it always been so? When evolutionary...

The strange and surprising history of the so-called epidemic of bad posture in modern America - from eugenics and posture pageants to today's promoters of 'paleo posture.'In 1995, a scandal erupted when the New York Times revealed that...

This book is conceivably the first time that a halachically-informed Jew offers a full picture of his life with the trials, tribulations, and difficulties that he encountered. It also describes the difficulties that rabbis and other Jewish religious...

The continuing Darfur War has caused mass displacement since 2003, with hundreds of thousands driven from their homes and many forced into refugee camps in western Sudan and neighbouring Chad. Building on twenty years of research in the region, Andrea...

A sweeping new account of ancient Greek culture and its remarkable diversity.Covering the whole of the ancient Greek experience from its beginnings late in the third millennium BCE to the Roman conquest in 30 BCE, Out of One, Many is an accessible and...

Fame is like lightning. Taylor Swift, Bob Dylan, Leonardo da Vinci, Jane Austen, Oprah Winfrey - all of them were struck. Why? What if they hadn't been?Consider the most famous music group in history. What would the world be like if the Beatles...

How Romans coped with the anxieties and risks of childbirthAcross the vast expanse of the Roman Empire, anxieties about childbirth tied individuals to one another, to the highest levels of imperial politics, even to the movements of the stars. Birthing...

A personal, journalistic ethnography of the modern American working class, based on the travels and interactions of the author through the American heartland. "Second Classis the most important book you will read all year. A political realignment is...

Finalist, 2024 Governor General's Literary Award for Nonfiction Finalist, 2024 Writers' Trust Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing These days, everyone feels insecure. We are financially stressed and emotionally overwhelmed. The status quo isn't...

A timeless psychological study of a young man's deep alienation from society.Set in the early 20th century, Kokoro opens with a chance encounter on a beach near Tokyo that irrevocably links a young student to a man he simply calls Sensei...