William Kornblum

Written by a respected scholar in the field, this authoritative and very accessible text offers students a contemporary introduction to social problems by introducing the major trends and future outlook for each social problem. Social policies devised to address social problems-and their consequences-are examined in depth by presenting the key research conducted to examine, explain, and alleviate today's social problems. The text takes the discussion of social problems one step further by looking at each problem from a global perspective. New features of this revised and updated thirteenth edition include a discussion of the "culture war"; a current controversies box on the Virginia Tech massacre; expanded discussions of the effects of crowding and military duty on mental health; and sections on identity theft, political discrimination-including felony disenfranchisement and anti-voter fraud campaigns, shelter poverty and homelessness, abstinence-only programs, modes of entry for illegal immigrants, immigration reform, and patterns of global terrorism. 

Challenging, comprehensive, and student friendly, the eighth edition of Sociology in a Changing World takes a thematic approach that emphasizes the reality of social change and its impact on individuals, groups, and societies throughout the world. This unique emphasis on social change helps students understand our similarities, our differences, and society as a whole and will help them think like sociologists long after their college experience. The text carefully balances contemporary and classic theory and research, with special attention to the works of female and minority social scientists and cross-cultural studies. Kornblum applies all the major perspectives of sociology without giving undue emphasis to any single approach. The book is the chosen text for "Exploring Society: Introduction to Sociology," a Telecourse from Dallas TeleLearning.

For Kornblum, New York City is shaped by the water and the people who have sailed it for goods, money, pirate's loot, and freedom-from a time long before Broadway was a muddy cart track," to today. Kornblum takes readers along as he sails through and around his hometown-as he has been doing his whole life-and paints a vivid portrait of the city's history in relation to its waterfront and maritime culture. As much a work of urban sociology-including tales of shipwrecks and the city's financial beginnings-as a memoir of his adventures on his restored ancient catboat named Tradition, At Sea in the City is an evocative personal narrative that "grapples afresh with the history and complexity of the metropolis" (Philip Lopate).