Sex in society

From the Preface: We believe this book has several distinctive features of content, theme, and treatment that an instructor teaching the introductory course in sociology will find valuable. The content reflects our concern with two values that are in critical balance in our time of rapid social change: the freedom and dignity of the individual, and the cohesion of a free society. Two chapters deal with the divisions and inequalities of social stratification, two deal with the tensions among racial, religious, and nationality groups. Part three is devoted to the person-not only as a socialized member of a group, but also as a being with a self-conception who adopts varying modes of behavior-conformity, deviance, or autonomy-in relation to norms. We introduce the theme of change as early as Chapter 7, in comparing folk and urban societies, and we develop it further in Part Four, in chapters on theories and processes of change, modernization as the great transformation, and the population explosion and urban trend. Part Five deals with the family, the economy, and political systems as "Social Institutions in a Changing World."