Sociology John J. Macionis

Our world challenges us like never before. Even as the economy climbs out of recession, unemployment remains high and the economic future is uncertain here in the United States and around the world.

For decades, income inequality in our society has steadily increased, just as it is increasing for the world as a whole. There is a lot of anger about how our national leaders in Washington are doing—or not doing—their jobs. Technological disasters of our own making threaten the natural environment, and patterns of extreme weather only add to the mounting evidence of global warming.

Perhaps no one should be surprised to read polls that tell us most people are anxious about their economic future, unhappy with our political system, and worried about the state of the planet. Many of us simply feel overwhelmed, as if we were up against forces we can barely understand— much less control.

That’s where sociology comes in. For more than 150 years, sociologists have been working to better understand how society operates. We sociologists may not have all the answers, but we have learned quite a lot that we can share with you. A beginning course in sociology is your introduction to the fascinating and very useful study of the social world. After all, we all have a stake in understanding our world and doing all we can to improve it.

John J. Macionis (pronounced “ma-SHOWnis”) has been in the classroom teaching sociology for more than forty years. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, John earned a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, majoring in sociology, and then completed a doctorate in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania.

His publications are wide-ranging, focusing on community life in the United States, interpersonal intimacy in families, effective teaching, humor, new information technology, and the importance of global education. In addition to authoring this best-seller, Macionis has also written Society: The Basics, the most popular paperback text in the field, now in its fourteenth edition.