American Sociology

Uncover the ways the Christian church has changed in recent years—from the decline of the mainline denominations to the mega-churchification of American culture—and a hopeful reimagining of what the church might look like going forward. The United States is in the middle of an unprecedented...

At 15, Victor Rios found himself a human target - flat on his ass amid a hail of shotgun fire, desperate for money and a place on the street. Faced with the choice of escalating a drug turf war or eking out a living elsewhere, he turned to a teacher, who mentored him and helped him find a job at an auto shop. That job would alter the course of his whole life - putting him on the road to college and eventually a PhD.

Seen around the world, John Carlos and Tommie Smith’s Black Power salute on the 1968 Olympic podium sparked controversy and career fallout. Yet their show of defiance remains one of the most iconic images of Olympic history and the Black Power movement. Here is the remarkable story of one of the men behind the salute, lifelong activist, John Carlos.

Il tifo calcistico è qualcosa di più di una storia d'amore o di una fede religiosa, è una condizione dell'essere. Si è di una squadra fin da bambini e la si ama seguendo dinamiche personalissime, fatte di consuetudini e liturgie ben precise, che rispondono a una grammatica che il non tifoso non può che ignorare. Tommaso Labate prende le mosse dalla recente vittoria dello scudetto del 2021 da parte della sua Inter per accompagnare il lettore alla scoperta di questa grammatica, attraverso un vero e proprio viaggio nell'"interismo".

As the revenues generated by big-time college sports continue to skyrocket, virtually all of the debate involves whether (and how much) student-athletes should be paid for play. Kenneth L. Shropshire and Collin D. Williams Jr., argue that "student" has to come first: the focus should be on prioritizing a meaningful education. They draw on new research to reveal that it has become increasingly difficult for college athletes to balance school and sports, much less a social life, leading to serious economic, professional, and emotional consequences for young people.

Physician, activist, and author Charles Alexander Eastman was the first Native American certified in Western medicine and one of the first authors of any background to emphasize the Native American perspective. In The Soul of the Indian, he shares the customs, rituals, celebrations, and beliefs of Native American spirituality, and in so doing provides a powerful account of the “Great Mystery” at their core.

The Hood Needs Love Too! delves into the struggles and triumphs of marginalized communities, shedding light on the systemic issues we face and offering a message of hope and empowerment. With a keen focus on the vital pillars of Collective Strength, Spiritual Resilience, and Economic Empowerment, it aims to challenge stereotypes, dismantle prejudices, and ignite a sense of unity and compassion among listeners. Brooks equips listeners with the tools for liberation.

The post-pandemic economy will be different in many ways—remote working, remote delivery of products as well as services like education and health care, and the development of workplace technology replacing people. Families, who in the 21st century are under both financial stress and time pressures, could actually benefit from these changes and see their hopes renewed and the American Dream revived.

This audio study guide for The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt includes a detailed summary and analysis of each chapter and an in-depth exploration of the book’s multiple symbols, motifs, and themes, such as the counterproductive culture of "Safetyism" and the benefits of cognitive behavioral therapy. Featured content also includes commentary on major characters, 25 important quotes, essay questions, and discussion topics.

In Open Your Eyes: A Prescription for Change in American Health Care, Dr. Eduardo Balbona shares his expert advice on how U.S. health care can be improved from its current state, in which both patients and doctors are unable to thrive. Gleaned from his more than 30 years of practicing medicine, Balbona’s text illustrates how our ideas on medical care have developed, and ultimately at what cost.

This book examines the idea whether the progressive movement in America led by Bernie Sanders will change American society.

During allergy season, sufferers know the drill: runny nose, watery eyes, sneezing up a storm. For the unlucky with asthma, symptoms might also include coughing and wheezing. However, asthma is not always caused by allergens like pollen and dust - nonallergenic asthma is brought on by a number of possible environmental or genetic triggers. Then there’s the common cold, which also presents with similar symptoms. So what’s causing your runny nose?

In 2005, Margaret Jones Bolsterli learned that her great-great-grandfather was a free mulatto named Jordan Chavis, who owned an antebellum plantation near Vicksburg, Mississippi. The news was a shock; Bolsterli had heard about the plantation in family stories told during her Arkansas Delta childhood, but Chavis' name and race had never been mentioned. With further exploration, Bolsterli found that when Chavis' children crossed the Mississippi River between 1859 and 1875 for exile in Arkansas, they passed into the white world, leaving the family’s racial history completely behind.

One progressive social worker's observation and opinion as to the decline and collapse of the American social and economic system, in which the American dream is unfairly rigged from the moment we enter public education, where the rich continue to get richer and the rest of us are left to get it the best way we can.

The era after World War II saw America's urban planners treat the lives of city-dwellers with disdain. It spawned a philosophy of urban renewal that valued the efficient movement of cars more than it valued the lives of people, and that wiped out entire neighborhoods dismissed by bureaucrats as slums. Published in 1961, Jane Jacobs's The Death and Life of Great American Cities examines the shortsightedness and failure of this philosophy. The book turns away from strict statistical study and abstract planning theory in favor of observations.

After World War II ended in 1945, the Soviet Union and the United States began a decades-long confrontation that would become known as the Cold War. American foreign policy focused on "containment" - preventing the communist USSR from gaining more ground - and many people looked at the geographical and political implications of this policy. Others, meanwhile, explored American domestic life in that same period. But historian Elaine Tyler May became the first person to bring these seemingly unrelated areas together.