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PREFACE

When I was a child, I did not live in so-called good school districts. I never took an AP class; if I was “gifted,” nobody in my high school much noticed. I took the SAT but didn’t know I was supposed to study for it.

Though I applied to a handful of colleges, I was only admitted to one. And when I arrived for move-in day, it was the first time I’d ever set foot on a college campus. I never could have imagined that someday I would write a book like this.

Sociology has given me so much: a career, peers, even friends. It has given me a platform from which to contribute meaningfully to public debate. But more than anything, it’s given me purpose. Sociology helps us see the social forces that transcend the individual and, with that lens, it empowers us to try to make the world a better place. To teach sociology is to give people the tools they need to remake their societies. And while I’ve had the opportunity to share sociology with many different kinds of people in myriad ways, this book is among the most incredible opportunities I’ve ever been afforded.

First and foremost, I wanted the book to be a good read. I devoted myself to writing crisply and engagingly. I looked for rich examples and clear statistics. I steered into rather than away from emotions, knowing that sociology not only can, but should, inspire curiosity, awe, intrigue, and delight, as well as disappointment, frustration, and even righteous anger.

There is no excuse for sociology to be anything but riveting.

I did my best to do justice to the diversity of voices that have contributed to sociological thought, both in the past and today. That meant not only being inclusive but placing this wide array of scholars shoulder to shoulder with those who have historically been lifted up as our “founding fathers.” To do this, I was determined to be inclusive far beyond the central sociological concerns with race, class, and gender, and their intersections. Without diminishing the importance of these axes of identity, this book is also attentive to sexual orientation, disability, age, body size, citizenship status,

the rural/urban divide, and more. I teach expressly about the value of standpoint, while modeling what it means to take diversity of viewpoint seriously. I hope readers will see themselves reflected not just in what sociologists study but in who sociologists are.

My vision also included a somewhat different approach to the lay of the sociological land. I start with an innovative chapter on the self. Most readers have grown up with the tradition of American individualism, an ideology that sits uncomfortably alongside sociology’s basic premise: that there are social forces that transcend individuals. I tackle this problem head-on. In Chapter 1, I show that the individual self is, paradoxically, itself a social fact. Prepped with this astounding idea, readers are better able to accept the role of social facts in shaping other features of daily life.

I also felt it was important to include a chapter that theorizes social organizations, institutions, and structures. These are challenging ideas that deserve careful explication, especially if readers are to fully comprehend the nature of social inequality. This book takes the time to fully introduce them. Likewise, I include a chapter on elite power. All too often we focus on the disadvantages that accrue to some but fail to shine a light on the advantages that accrue to others—and the work they do to preserve those advantages. Elites do not go unexamined here.

I introduce historical figures and sociological research methods throughout the text instead of at the beginning. I do not expect readers to care about the modes of data collection for findings they have not yet encountered and the history of a field they have not yet studied. So, these things are introduced when they become relevant to the book’s overall intellectual trajectory.

Comprehensive discussions of both sociological history and research methods are also included as appendices.

Roughly speaking, the book is organized in such a way as to introduce core theoretical concepts, address the complex phenomena of social inequality, and explore the potential for social change. Instead of sending readers off with just a few inspiring words, each of the final three chapters is aimed at empowering people to become not just sociological thinkers but engaged and efficacious members of their communities, both large and small. The

book ends optimistically, without downplaying the real challenges we face or laying all the responsibility for social change on the next generation.

There is so much more to tell about the earnest care that’s been poured into this text. We agonized over punctuation, obsessed over prose, carefully unwrapped concepts, and made harmony out of the whole. Suffice to say, Terrible Magnificent Sociology comes out of a deep respect for sociology, a true love of writing, and genuine hope for the future.

None of this would have been possible without the help, support, and encouragement of dozens of others. Most notably, Dr. Myra Marx Ferree. In 2006, as I was finishing up graduate school, Myra changed my life, and not for the first time. Long story short, she asked if I wanted to coauthor a sociology of gender textbook that W. W. Norton had been nagging her to write for quite some time. Of course, I said yes! Seven years later, we released Gender: Ideas, Interactions, Institutions. That experience gave me the confidence to write American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus, a book that was released to the general public. Academics aren’t always well-suited to writing such books, so I am forever indebted to Nathaniel Jacks and Alane Mason for taking a chance on me. American Hookup presented me with an opportunity to become a better writer, and I grasped it. Only then, with that and Gender under my belt, did I think I could write a textbook like this one.

To all of you at Norton, thank you from the bottom of my heart. As an employee-owned company, you stand proudly behind the texts you publish.

You’ve placed great trust in me. Even now, I remain surprised and delighted at your willingness to support my vision. You gave me free rein to write this book as I pleased; I hope it doesn’t disappoint. Thank you specifically to the entire team that has supported its development and launch, including assistant editor Erika Nakagawa, project editor Laura Dragonette, designer Marisa Nakasone, photo editor Catherine Abelman, text permissions specialist Josh Garvin, copy editor Laura Sewell, and production manager Ben Reynolds. A big thank you also to media editor Eileen Connell, associate media editor Ariel Eaton, and media editorial assistant Alexandra Park for your work in creating a thoughtful, cohesive, and engaging digital support package.

Above all, I am grateful to my editor, Sasha Levitt. As a solo author, I leaned heavily on Sasha’s expertise. She was my most attentive sounding board, a generous reader of early and all drafts, and an inspirational critic.

She steered me off more than one bad path and set me on countless good ones. Alongside practical support, she has offered endless enthusiasm. After four books together, we have become a fantastic team, and good friends too.

I hope we continue to write books together for a very, very long time.

Over the years, I’ve subjected many unsuspecting students to drafts of this book. Thank you to the Occidental College Sociology 101 students who read rough chapters in class. I hope the free textbook was worth it! And thank you to Aaron Hammonds, Claire Krelitz, Sean Ransom, Naomi Schiller, and Carrie Wade for your careful and thoughtful feedback. I am grateful, also, to the Terrible Magnificent Sociology Book Club: Alejandra Arroyo, Allen Chen, Taylor Gorretta, Matthew Hao, Kailey Hecht, Anna Lipton, Estephany Lopez, Claudia Oppermann, Megan Purdome, and Michaela Smith-Simmons. Long before the book had its improbable name, these students went over each draft chapter with a fine-tooth comb, looking for opportunities to improve the writing, pedagogy, and narrative. Their fingerprints are all over this text, and it is immeasurably better for their contributions.

As the book reached maturity, it benefited tremendously from the feedback provided by the following reviewers:

REVIEWERS

Alison Better, Kingsborough Community College, CUNY

Marni A. Brown, Georgia Gwinnett College Kelsy Burke, University of Nebraska

Jennifer Chernega, Winona State University Elizabeth Clifford, Towson University

Brianne Dávila, California Polytechnic State University, Pomona Sarah Epplen, Minnesota State University, Mankato Amanda Fehlbaum, Youngstown State University Kjerstin Gruys, University of Nevada, Reno Eileen Huey, Texas A&M University

Sahan Savas Karatasli, University of North Carolina, Greensboro Kyle Knight, University of Alabama in Huntsville Michele Lee Kozimor, Elizabethtown College Joseph Kremer, Washington State University Elizabeth Legerski, University of North Dakota Sara Lopus, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Juan Martinez, Northeastern Illinois University Naomi McCool, Chaffey College Geoffrey Moss, Temple University

Schneur Zalman Newfield, Borough of Manhattan Community College Holly Ningard, Ohio University

Tracy E. Ore, St. Cloud State University Carla A. Pfeffer, University of South Carolina Sarah M. Pitcher, San Diego City College Chelsea Platt, Park University

C. Brady Potts, Occidental College

Barbara Prince, Lebanon Valley College Kayla Pritchard, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology Anna Sanders-Bonelli, Durham Technical Community College Paromita Sanyal, Florida State University Emily

Shafer, Portland State University Jennifer Simmers, University of California, Riverside David Springer, University of Illinois at Chicago Tara Tober, University of California, Santa Barbara Jason S. Ulsperger, Arkansas Tech University Alicia Walker, Missouri State University J. Alison Watts, Community College of Philadelphia I am eternally grateful for their willingness to donate their finite time and energy to this project. These reviewers helped strengthen all the chapters, particularly those for which I had the weakest preparation. Sasha and I took none of their feedback for granted. As a result, the text is more comprehensive, sophisticated, and exacting than it would be otherwise.

And with that, dear book, you are released into the world. We wish so much for you! May you inspire students to read for class every day. May you enliven discussion and make your instructors’ workload light. May students genuinely like you; may they sometimes decide to keep you! May you help students discover their own identities as sociologists and a pathway to graduation and beyond. And may you spark a lifelong love for sociology in all who encounter you.

Lisa Wade

Tulane University

INTRODUCTION

THE SCIENCE OF SOCIAL