Short Takes: On Social Roles and Social Structure

This book Short Takes: On Social Roles and Social Structure uses short essays to do the work of long ones. It takes on the definition and analysis of important sociological concepts such as social role and community and conjoins that with an analysis of important institutions in American life such as education. It intersperses that with a consideration of important and currently controversial roles such as that of women and African-Americans so as to show how useful it is to apply the sociological perspective to matters usually dealt with in a polemical fashion. The results the author believes are counter-intuitive but also refreshing.