Sociology and anthropology Books

An up-close account of how Nigerians' self-reliance in the absence of reliable government services enables official dysfunction to strengthen state power.When Nigerians say that every household is its own local government, what they mean is that the...

In 2015, the anonymous leak of the Panama Papers brought to light millions of financial and legal documents exposing how the super-rich hide their money using complex webs of offshore vehicles. Spiderweb Capitalism takes you inside this shadow economy,...

Most of us understand that a person's place in society can close doors to opportunity, but anything is possible when we dream about what might be, or so we think. Dreams of a Lifetime reveals that what and how we dream-and whether we believe our dreams...

What a Mushroom Lives For pushes today's mushroom renaissance in compelling new directions. For centuries, Western science has promoted a human- and animal-centric framework of what counts as action, agency, movement and behaviour. But, as Michael...

'A book as urgent as the moment that produced it.' - Jelani Cobb, Columbia Journalism SchoolLong before the pandemic, Ruha Benjamin was doing groundbreaking research on race, technology, and justice, focusing on big, structural changes...

*One of Times Higher Education's Best Books of 2015**Winner of the 2016 Gregory Bateson Prize, The Society for Cultural Anthropology**One of Flavorwire's 10 Best Books by Academic Publishers in 2015**Winner of the 2016 Victor Turner Prize in Ethnographic...

How tech giants are reshaping spirituality to serve their religion of peak productivity.Silicon Valley is known for its lavish perks, intense work culture, and spiritual gurus. Work Pray Code explores how tech companies are bringing religion into the...

The first modern scholarly synthesis of animal domesticationAcross the globe and at different times in the past millennia, the evolutionary history of domesticated animals has been greatly affected by the myriad, complex, and diverse interactions humans...

From the perspective of Western modernity, humanity inhabits a disenchanted cosmos. Gods, spirits and ancestors have left us for a transcendent beyond, no longer living in our midst and being involved in all matters of everyday life from the trivial to...

A groundbreaking logic-based approach to bridging the scientific-constructivist divide in social science.The Logic of Social Science offers new principles for designing and conducting social science research. James Mahoney uses set-theoretic analysis to...

An engaging introduction to data science that emphasizes critical thinking over statistical techniquesAn introduction to data science or statistics shouldn't involve proving complex theorems or memorizing obscure terms and formulas, but that is exactly...

A clear and comprehensive framework for bridging the widening gap between theorists and empiricists in social scienceThe credibility revolution, with its emphasis on empirical methods for causal inference, has led to concerns among scholars that the...

A new way of thinking about the climate crisis as an exercise in delimiting knowable, and habitable, worldsAs carbon dioxide emissions continue to rise, Earth's fragile ecosystems are growing increasingly unstable and unpredictable. Horizon Work explores...

A remarkable look at how the growth, technology, and politics of high-frequency trading have altered global financial markets In today's financial markets, trading floors on which brokers buy and sell shares face-to-face have increasingly been...

A mesmerizing trip across America to investigate the changing face of death in contemporary lifeDeath in the United States is undergoing a quiet revolution. You can have your body frozen, dissected, composted, dissolved, or tanned. Your family can...

A riveting account of how a popularly elected leader has steered the world's largest democracy toward authoritarianism and intolerance.Over the past two decades, thanks to Narendra Modi, Hindu nationalism has been coupled with a form of...

The brilliant but turbulent life of a public intellectual who transformed the social sciencesRobert Bellah (19272013) was one of the most influential social scientists of the twentieth century. Trained as a sociologist, he crossed disciplinary boundaries...

The little-known history of public school teachers across the Arab world-and how they wielded an unlikely influence over the modern Middle EastToday, it is hard to imagine a time and place when public school teachers were considered among the elite...

Hate crimes. Misinformation and conspiracy theories. Foiled white-supremacist plots. The signs of growing far-right extremism are all around us, and communities across America and around the globe are struggling to understand how so many people are being...

The last three decades have seen a massive expansion of China's visual culture industries, from architecture and graphic design to fine art and fashion. New ideologies of creativity and creative practices have reshaped the training of a new generation of...

The exorbitant costs of urban housing and the widening gap in income inequality are fueling a combative new movement in cities around the world. A growing number of influential activists aren't waiting for new public housing to be built. Instead, they're...

A savoury account of how the pursuit of delicious foods shaped human evolutionNature, it has been said, invites us to eat by appetite and rewards by flavour. But what exactly are flavours? Why are some so pleasing while others are not? Delicious is a...

The epic story of human evolution, from our primate beginnings more than five million years ago to the agricultural eraOver the course of five million years, our primate ancestors evolved from a modest population of sub-Saharan apes into the globally...

A richly illustrated account of the story of ancient vinicultureThe history of civilization is, in many ways, the history of wine. This book is the first comprehensive account of the earliest stages of the history and prehistory of viniculture, which...

An innovative and accessible guide to doing social research in the digital ageThe rapid spread of social media, smartphones, and other digital wonders enables us to collect and process data about human behavior on a scale never before imaginable,...

*World Magazine, Honourable Mention, Accessible History Book of the Year*Why have most modern revolutions have ended in bloodshed and failure-and what lessons they hold for today's world of growing extremism. Why have so many of the iconic...

Menstruation is something half the world does for a week at a time, for months and years on end, yet it remains largely misunderstood. Scientists once thought of an individual's period as useless, and some doctors still believe it's unsafe for a...

New York Times BestsellerWall Street Journal BestsellerA New York Times Book Review Editors' ChoiceSunday Times Best Business Books of 2020 New York Times Notable 100Science News Favorite Books of 2020 Inside Higher Ed, Best Books of 2020...

A rare behind-the-scenes look at the work of forensic scientists.The findings of forensic science - from DNA profiles and chemical identifications of illegal drugs to comparisons of bullets, fingerprints, and shoeprints - are widely used in police...

A look at the revolution in game live streaming and esports broadcastingEvery day thousands of people broadcast their gaming live to audiences over the internet using popular sites such as Twitch, which reaches more than one hundred million viewers a...

In today's new economy-in which "good" jobs are typically knowledge or technology based-many well-educated and culturally savvy young people are instead choosing to pursue traditionally low-status manual labor occupations as careers. Masters of Craft...

The astonishing new story of human originsWas Darwin wrong when he traced our origins to Africa? The Real Planet of the Apes makes the explosive claim that it was in Europe, not Africa, where apes evolved the most important hallmarks of our human lineage...

How the transgender experience opens up new possibilities for thinking about gender and raceIn the summer of 2015, shortly after Caitlyn Jenner came out as transgender, the NAACP official and political activist Rachel Dolezal was "outed" by her parents...

In 1949, at the end of a long period of wars, one of the biggest challenges facing leaders of the new People's Republic of China was how much they did not know. The government of one of the world's largest nations was committed to fundamentally...

It is clear that in our society today, issues of diversity and social connectedness remain deeply unresolved and can lead to crisis and instability. The major demographic changes taking place in America make discussions about such issues all the more...

Journalists today are inundated with data about which stories attract the most clicks, likes, comments, and shares. These metrics influence what stories are written, how news is promoted, and even which journalists get hired and fired. Do metrics make...

How the words we use-and don't use-reinforce dominant cultural normsWhy is the term "openly gay" so widely used but "openly straight" is not? What are the unspoken assumptions behind terms like "male nurse," "working mom," and "white trash"? Offering a...

The institution of marriage stands at a critical juncture. As gay marriage equality gains acceptance in law and public opinion, questions abound regarding marriage's future. Will same-sex marriage lead to more radical marriage reform? Should it? Antonin...

An introductory textbook on data analysis and statistics written especially for students in the social sciences and allied fields Quantitative analysis is an increasingly essential skill for social science research, yet students in the social sciences...

How new parents in low-wage jobs juggle the demands of work and childcare, and the easy ways employers can help.Low-wage workers make up the largest group of employed parents in the United States, yet scant attention has been given to their experiences...

How ordinary urban objects influence our behavior, exacerbate inequality, and encourage social changeAssumptions about human behavior lie hidden in plain sight all around us, programmed into the design and regulation of the material objects we encounter...

The family is hotly contested ideological terrain. Some defend the traditional two-parent heterosexual family while others welcome its demise. Opinions vary about how much control parents should have over their children's upbringing. Family Values...

There's a scene in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass in which the Red Queen, having just led a chase with Alice in which neither seems to have moved from the spot where they began, explains to the perplexed girl: "It takes all the running you can...

When it comes to politics, we often perceive our own beliefs as fair and socially beneficial, while seeing opposing views as merely self-serving. But in fact most political views are governed by self-interest, even if we usually don't realize it...

A fundamentally new approach to the history of science and technologyThis book presents a new way of thinking about the history of science and technology, one that offers a grand narrative of human history in which knowledge serves as a critical factor...

For any market to work properly, certain key elements are necessary: competition, pricing, rules, clearly defined offers, and easy access to information. Without these components, there would be chaos. Orderly Fashion examines how order is maintained in...

The Revealer, Winter Reading RecommendationsA revealing look at Jewish men and women who secretly explore the outside world, in person and online, while remaining in their ultra-Orthodox religious communities.What would you do if you questioned your...

A sociologist and former fashion model takes readers inside the elite global party circuit of 'models and bottles' to reveal how beautiful young women are used to boost the status of men Million-dollar birthday parties, megayachts on...