Best of
Sociology

1955

The Sane Society


Erich Fromm - 1955
    In this study, he reaches further and asks: “Can a society be sick?” He finds that it can, arguing that Western culture is immersed in a “pathology of normalcy” that affects the mental health of individuals. In The Sane Society, Fromm examines the alienating effects of modern capitalism, and discusses historical and contemporary alternatives, particularly communitarian systems. Finally, he presents new ideas for a re-organization of economics, politics, and culture that would support the individual’s mental health and our profound human needs for love and freedom.

Tristes Tropiques


Claude Lévi-Strauss - 1955
    His account of the people he encountered changed the field of anthropology, transforming Western notions of ‘primitive’ man. Tristes Tropiques is a major work of art as well as of scholarship. It is a memoir of exquisite beauty and a masterpiece of travel writing: funny, discursive, movingly detailing personal and cultural loss, and brilliantly connecting disparate fields of thought. Few books have had as powerful and broad an impact.

Imperialism: Part Two of The Origins of Totalitarianism


Hannah Arendt - 1955
    This middle volume focuses on the curious and cruel epoch of declining European colonial imperialism from 1884 to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

The Tree of Culture


Ralph Linton - 1955
    PB

The Office of Woman in the Church: a Study in Practical Theology


Fritz Zerbst - 1955
    

The Sociology Of Social Problems


Paul B. Horton - 1955
     Well-balanced in approach, it uses three major sociological perspectives (social disorganization, value conflict, and personal deviation) to analyze a wide variety of contemporary American social problems and research data, explaining the origin and existence of each social problem and indicating courses of action for changing social conditions and the personal sacrifices necessary to implement social change. Explores the nature, role, and function of vested interest groups, and considers civil liberties of minority groups and the American society. Practicing social workers or community activists.

Personal Influence: The Part Played by People in the Flow of Mass Communications


Elihu Katz - 1955
    This classic volume set the stage for all subsequent studies of the interaction of mass media and interpersonal influence in the making of everyday decisions in public affairs, fashion, movie-going, and consumer behavior. The contextualizing essay in Part One dwells on the surprising relevance of primary groups to the flow of mass communication. Peter Simonson of the University of Pittsburgh has written that "Personal Influence was perhaps the most influential book in mass communication research of the postwar era, and it remains a signal text with historic significance and ongoing reverberations...more than any other single work, it solidified what came to be known as the dominant paradigm in the field, which later researchers were compelled either to cast off or build upon." In his introduction to this fiftieth-anniversary edition, Elihu Katz discusses the theory and methodology that underlie the Decatur study and evaluates the legacy of his coauthor and mentor, Paul F. Lazarsfeld.

Family: Socialization and Interaction Process


Talcott Parsons - 1955
    Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Childhood in Contemporary Cultures


Margaret Mead - 1955