Sociology and anthropology Books

"Satire is her oxygen. . . . In her new oddball comedy, Dead Man's Cell Phone, Sarah Ruhl is forever vital in her lyrical and biting takes on how we behave."-The Washington Post"Ruhl's zany probe of the razor-thin line between life and death delivers a...

In this evocative account of navigating pregnancy loss, Jessica Zucker confronts the cultural silence around miscarriages and illuminates how she built a movement from her experience, transforming trauma into human connection.Sixteen weeks into her...

Dismay over how unequally women's sports are treated have been widespread. Boxing and other martial arts haven't really entered the conversation, but this book shows why they should. Despite all the other strides feminism has made, we've not really been...

In 1787, British philosopher and social reformer Jeremy Bentham conceived of the panopticon, a ring of cells observed by a central watchtower, as a labor-saving device for those in authority. While Bentham's design was ostensibly for a prison, he...

Every queer person lives with the trauma of AIDS, and this plays out intergenerationally. Usually we hear about two generations - the first, coming of age in the era of gay liberation, and then watching entire circles of friends die of a mysterious...

The fascinating origin story of Wilson Duff, the pioneering BC anthropologist and museologist remembered for his contributions to research on First Nations cultures of the Northwest Coast. Wilson Duff was born in 1925 in the city of Vancouver and his...

Imperial inequalities takes Western European empires, and their legacies, as the explicit starting point for discussion of issues of taxation and welfare. Specifically, it addresses the institutional and fiscal processes involved in the modes of...

Faith stories explains systems of cultural value that are articulated through faith. Drawing on ethnography, interviews, focus groups for adults and arts workshops for their children, Anna Hickey-Moody examines belonging, attachment, faith, belief and...

Living with water brings together sociologists, geographers, artists, writers and poets to explore the ways in which water binds, immerses and supports us. Drawing from international research on river crossings, boat dwelling, wild swimming, sea fishing,...

Taking its cue from Michel de Montaigne, this book asks what COVID-19 can teach us about the 'art of living'. It examines eight themes from a philosophical perspective, including attitudes to old age, populism and life under lockdown, arguing that the...

In recent decades, the global wealth of the rich has soared to leave huge chasms of wealth inequality. This book argues that we cannot talk about inequalities in Britain today without talking about the monarchy.Running the Family Firm explores the...

The Me Too movement, started by Black feminist Tarana Burke in 2006, went viral as a hashtag eleven years later after a tweet by white actor Alyssa Milano. Mainstream movements like #MeToo have often built on and co-opted the work of women of colour,...

Following the expatriate offers an in-depth exploration of the history and politics of the category expatriate. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship, the book tells situated stories about the category's making, re-making, contestation and lived...

This collection brings together academics and practitioners to consider the increasingly central role that memory and recalling the past plays in determining contemporary politics and the future direction of Northern Irish society. Using theoretical,...

The first account of one of the world's most pressing humanitarian catastrophes.This eye-opening book reveals how China has used the US-led Global War on Terror as cover for its increasingly brutal suppression of the Uyghur people.China's...

Zygmunt Bauman was one of the most important social theorists of recent decades. He did major work on the Holocaust, the postmodern and much else, up to fifty-eight books in English on almost as many topics. In this book, Australian sociologist Peter...

*Winner of the 2019 Archaeology & Ancient History PROSE award from the Association of American Publishers (AAP)*This is the first book to survey the 'hidden half' of prehistoric societies as revealed by archaeology - from Australopithecines to...

This book examines key moments in which collective and state violence was used to invigorate racialised social boundaries around Mexican and African Americans in the United States, and in which they violently contested them. Bringing the often-ignored...

Implanting the human body with human/animal organs or implantable devices not only changes what you are but also changes who you are. If you were in need of an organ transplant, would you prefer organs from other humans or non-human animals, or...

How two teenage girls in Minnesota jump-started a revolution in high school athleticsPeggy Brenden, a senior, played tennis. Toni St. Pierre, a junior, was a cross country runner and skier. All these two talented teenagers wanted was a chance to compete...

What happens when American Indians take over an institution designed to eliminate them?The Bureau of Indian Affairs was hatched in the U.S. Department of War to subjugate and eliminate American Indians. Yet beginning in the 1970s, American Indians and...

FINALIST FOR THE GREGORY BATESONPRIZE FROM THE AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATIONDispelling stereotypes about garment workers in the global apparel industryCastoffs of Capital examines how female garment workers experience their work and personal...

A groundbreaking reflection on the process by which one arrives at an ethological theoryHow do humans study the complex worlds of animals without imposing their own societal and scientific gaze upon them? The biologist Amotz Zahavi stakes the...

A searing critique of the "freedom" that America offers to the victims of its imperialist machinations of war and occupation Meaningless Citizenship traces the costs of America's long-term military involvement around the world by following the forced...

A powerful new understanding of cooperation as an antidote to alienation and inequalityFrom the crises of racial inequity and capitalism that inspired the Black Lives Matter movement and the Green New Deal to the coronavirus pandemic, stories of mutual...

A fascinating and unprecedented ethnography of animal sanctuaries in the United States In the past three decades, animal rights advocates have established everything from elephant sanctuaries in Africa to shelters that rehabilitate animals used in...

This powerful graphic novel illustrates the personal text messages and lived experiences of Ukrainians during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine that dominated headlines around the...

This book explores the structural political imbalances that exist within complex democratic federations. In the coming decade, we may see the advent of multinational federalism on an international scale. As great powers and international organizations...

The Villa Tugendhat, designed by Mies van der Rohe in 1928, is an icon of architectural modernism. Behind the Glass tells the true story of the large family connected to it, who rose to prominence through industrial textile manufacturing.The book traces...

Onscreen/Offscreen is an ethnographic study of the ontological politics of cinema in South India.Based on over a decade of ethnographic fieldwork in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Onscreen/Offscreen is an exploration of the politics and being of...

Now in its third edition, Introducing Archaeology continues to be a lively and approachable textbook for introductory-level students. Covering traditional elements of archaeology, including methods and prehistory, the new edition also opens up greater...

The new edition of this influential text addresses key issues about the past, present, and future of workers and unions in Canada.From Consent to Coercion examines the increasing assault against trade union rights and freedoms in Canada by federal and...

Empaths are highly sensitive and feel other people's energies and emotions as if they were their own. Uniquely intuitive and hyper-perceptive, empaths are also more sensitive to collective energy, the energy of spaces, and in some cases even physical...

Liberated, licentious, or merely liberal, the sexual freedoms of Germany's Weimar Republic have become legendary. The home of the world's first gay rights movement, the republic embodied a progressive, secular vision of sexual liberation. Immortalized -...

Essays on the history of psychedelics, the present renaissance, and visions for an inclusive and equitable future. As psychedelics and psychedelic-assisted therapies explode into the popular consciousness, what does it mean to cultivate and embody a...

Throw off the shackles of formal schooling and embark upon a rich journey of self-directed, life-long learning.After over 100 years of mandatory schooling in the U.S., literacy rates have dropped, families are fragmented, learning "disabilities" are...

Deaf people are usually regarded by the hearing world as having a lack, as missing a sense. Yet a definition of deaf people based on hearing loss obscures a wealth of ways in which societies have benefited from the significant contributions of deaf...

A comprehensive guide to understanding Vietnam's long and tumultuous historyA Brief History of Vietnam explores the turbulent history of a land that has risen from the ashes of war to become the newest Asian tiger economy. This book expertly...

The history of Tokyo is as eventful as it is long. A concise yet detailed overview of this fascinating, centuries-old city, Tokyo: A Biography is a perfect companion volume for history buffs or Tokyo-bound travelers looking to learn more about their...

For millennia, China was the largest and richest nation on earth. Two centuries ago, however, its economy sank into a depression from which it had not fully recovered-until now. China's modern resurgence as the world's largest nation in terms of...

Two volumes in one!This is a complete, two-volume set of one of the greatest books on 19th century Japanese history and culture. Though Lafcadio Hearn went on to write a dozen more books on Japan, this collection of first impressions remains his most...

This book tells the story of Bali the "paradise island of the Pacific" its rulers and its people, and their encounters with the Western world. Bali is a perennially popular tourist destination. It is also home to a fascinating people with a long and...

In Bali, what you see-sekala-is a colorful world of ceremony, ritual, dance, and drama. What you don't see what is occult-niskala-is the doctrine underlying the pageants, the code underlying the rites, and the magic underlying the dance. In this book,...

A penetrating and incisive study of the fanaticism and foibles of some of history's most illustrious names. From Assad to Nero, Gaddafi to Ivan the Terrible, this volume investigates the minds of some of the most powerful...

This book explores the turbulent social history of churchyards and cemeteries over the last 150 years. Using sites from across rural North Yorkshire, the text examines the workings of the Burial Acts and discloses the ways in which religious politics...

Winner of the Women's History Network Book Prize, 2013This book examines women's experiences of motherhood in England in the years between 1945 and 2000. Based on a new body of 160 oral history interviews, the book offers the first comprehensive...

This book, available in paperback due to popular demand, is an ethnographic account of English football fans, based upon sixteen years' participant observation. The author identifies a distinct sub-culture of supporter - the 'carnival fan' - who...

What is the point of cultural theory? Do we even know what it is? This book is at once an introduction to, and, broadly, a defence of modern cultural theory understood as a particular constellation of inquiry, one that may be all the more important in...