This best-selling textbook returns for an eighth edition with material on the most fundamental issues in sociology today, building on the seventh edition's discussion of reproductive justice after the revocation of Roe v. Wade, social movements such as BLM and #MeToo, a discussion of the Covid-19 pandemic and Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

John E. Farley is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, where he has taught courses ranging from introductory sociology to a course in advanced data analysis for graduate students. He is the author of two other textbooks, Majority-Minority Relations, Sixth Edition (2010) and American Social Problems: An Institutional Analysis, Second Edition (1992). His articles on his sociological research have appeared in the American Journal of Sociology, American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Urban Affairs Quarterly, and a number of other journals.

Michael W. Flota is Professor and Chair of the School of Social Science at Daytona State College, where he teaches Introduction to Sociology every semester, and serves as the Managing Editor for the Journal of Florida Studies.

J. Scott Carter is currently Professor of Sociology at the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando, Florida. He has published in several journals, including the Annual Review of Sociology, Social Problems, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, Social Science Research, Social Science Quarterly, and the Journal of Family Issues, to name a few. He is also co-author of the book The Death of Affirmative Action? Racialized Framing and the Fight Against Racial Preference in College Admissions (2021) and co-editor of the book Protecting Whiteness: Whitelash and the Rejection of Racial Equality (2020).

PrefaceAcknowledgementsAbout the Authors

2. How Sociology Is Done
3. Perspectives on Society and Interaction
4. Culture and Social Structure
5. Socialization
6. Stratification: Structured Social Inequality
7. Race and Ethnic Relations
8. Sex, Gender, and Society
9. Groups, Organizations, and the Workplace
10. Deviance, Crime, and Social Control
11. Economy and Society
12. Politics, Power, and Society
13. Marriages and Families
14. Education
15. Religion
16. Health, Population, and Aging
17. Urban Society: City Life and Collective Behavior
18. Social Movements and Change