This lively and concise text uses analyses of everyday life to inspire students to think sociologically about society and about themselves as social actors.

The Sociologically Examined Life: Pieces of the Conversation

Politics & Social Sciences

Schwalbe,Michael

Social Sciences

McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages

The Sociologically Examined Life is a lively and concise text that uses analyses of everyday life to inspire students to think sociologically about society and about themselves as social actors.

McGraw–Hill Education

In Rigging the Game Michael Schwalbe offers a clear and compelling introduction to how the rules that shape economic life and everyday interaction generate and perpetuate inequality in American society. Guided by the questions How did the situation get this way? and How does it stay this way?, Schwalbe tracks inequality from its roots to its regulation. With its lively combination of analysis and stories, Rigging the Game is an innovative tool for teaching about the inequalities of race, class, and gender. In the final chapter, "Escaping the Inequality Trap," Schwalbe helps students understand how inequality can be challenged and overcome.

Rigging the Game: How Inequality is Reproduced in Everyday Life

Sociology

Oxford University Press

Now published by Oxford University Press, the fifth edition of The Sociologically Examined Life: Pieces of the Conversation teaches students how to think sociologically. Michael Schwalbe's conversational writing encourages discussion and pushes students to critically examine how social life leads them to think, feel, and behave in the ways they do. The Sociologically Examined Life encourages students to apply sociological thinking to both social structures and their everyday lives. It also guides students in reflecting on their potential power to change the social world.

Making a Difference begins with the question that many sociology students often ask: Sociology tells us what's wrong with society, but what does sociology say we should do about it? Michael Schwalbe answers this question by drawing on sociology's methods, findings, and distinct ways of looking at social life. Schwalbe shows readers how social change can be accomplished by taking a sociologically mindful approach to a range of ordinary actions, such as listening, researching, writing, organizing, empathizing, advocating, conserving, teaching, dissenting, and imagining. Readers who have ever wondered how to use sociology to make the world a better place will find concrete answers and advice in Making a Difference.

Making a Difference: Using Sociology to Create a Better World

The mythopoetic men's movement grew quietly for ten years before Roberts Bly's bestseller Iron John brought the movement to national attention. Reactions to the movement ranged from bemused or dismissive stories appearing in Sunday supplements and magazines, to outrageous lampoons on stage, to harsh criticism by many feminists. Bly and the mythopoetic claimed in turn to be misunderstood. What is the truth about these men and their movement? Why do these middle-class white men gather at rustic camps to beat drums, dance wildly, hold sweat lodge rituals, laugh and cry, and listen to old myths and fairy tales? Based on Michael Schwalbe's three years of experience as a participant and observer at over one hundred meetings, as well as on interviews with active members, Unlocking the Iron Cage provides a revealing look at who these men are, what they do, why mythopoetic activity appeals to them, what needs it fills, where it succeeds, and where it fails. Schwalbe illuminates the theory behind the mythopoetic movement--which derives largely from Jungian psychology and the archetypal psychology of James Hillman--but for the most part he focuses on the rank-and-file participants. He finds mostly middle-class men trying to cope with the legacy of fathers who gave little emotional sustenance and with a competitive society they find unsatisfying, who sympathize with many of women's complaints about men and sexism (though Schwalbe also finds that many joined as a reaction to what they saw as feminism's blanket indictment of men), and who are searching for an alternative to the traditional image of a man as rational, tough, ambitious, and in control. Schwalbe finds much of value in the men's quest. For instance, he highlights the religious appeal of mythopoetic activity, with its emphasis on finding one's personal truth, its gentle pantheism, its use of ritual to create emotional communion--all of which give the men the wide, inclusive path to spirituality they want. And he shows how Jungian psychology helps the men to redefine their feminine traits, especially their emotionality, as aspects of "deep masculinity." But he also levels some criticisms. He shows, for example, that the myths the men embrace--myths that tend to be devoid of women, or that portray women as beautiful prizes, or as hags, or cloying mothers-- reinforce the presumptions of male superiority they claim to reject. If the mythopoetic movement seems absurd to an outsiders, it is no more ludicrous than football--with fans shirtless in freezing weather, their faces painted, screaming themselves hoarse--and it is far less damaging to men's image of women or of themselves. In Unlocking the Iron Cage, Michael Schwalbe provides an understanding, insightful account of this often-maligned grass-roots movement, revealing both its potential for harm and the genuine value it has for many people.

Unlocking the Iron Cage: The Men's Movement, Gender Politics, and American Culture

In Rigging the Game--a brief, accessible introduction to the study of inequality in American society--Michael Schwalbe investigates how inequality is both created and reproduced. Guided by the questions How did the situation get this way? and How does it stay this way?, Schwalbe tracks inequality from its roots to its regulation. In the final chapter, "Escaping the Inequality Trap," he also shows how inequality can be overcome. Throughout, Schwalbe's engaging writing style draws students into the material, providing instructors with a solid foundation for discussing this challenging and provocative subject. With its lively combination of incisive analysis and compelling fictional narratives, Rigging the Game is an innovative teaching tool--not only for courses on stratification, but also for social problems courses, introductory sociology courses, and any course that takes a close look at how the inequalities of race, class, and gender are perpetuated.

Rigging the Game: How Inequality Is Reproduced in Everyday Life

Business & Money

Industries

Mayfield Publishing Company

This lively and concise supplemental text uses analyses of everyday conversations and experiences to inspire students to think sociologically about society and about themselves as social actors.

Tobacco use causes over 440,000 premature deaths every year in the United States, or about 20 percent of all annual mortality in the nation. Such statistics remind us of the enormity of the problem, yet offer no insight into how tobacco-related disease is experienced by individuals and their families. Smoke Damage fills this gap by putting a human face on America’s most profitable and most preventable epidemic. Through interviews and photographs, sociologist Michael Schwalbe takes readers beyond the usual statistics and shows the real people—disease survivors, “tobacco widows,” educators, activists, legislators, lawyers, researchers, and farmers—on the front lines of America’s ongoing tobacco wars. The result is a poignant study of how tobacco-related disease is experienced not only by its victims but also by those who are dedicated to fighting it. In his introductory essay, Schwalbe examines the scope of the tobacco problem, discusses its economic roots, and writes of his own experience of tobacco’s costs. In his afterword, he explores patterns in the lives of disease survivors, offers policy recommendations, and invites readers to take action. Smoke Damage is for anyone whose life has been touched by tobacco-related disease and who wants to understand why the epidemic persists and what can be done to end it.

Smoke Damage: Voices from the Front Lines of America’s Tobacco Wars

Arts & Photography

Photography & Video

Borderland Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Schwalbe,Michael. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Schwalbe,Michael

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Schwalbe,Michael. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Sociologically Examined Life: Pieces of the Conversation

The Sociologically Examined Life: Pieces of the Conversation

Rigging the Game: How Inequality is Reproduced in Everyday Life

The Sociologically Examined Life: Pieces of the Conversation

Making a Difference: Using Sociology to Create a Better World

Unlocking the Iron Cage: The Men's Movement, Gender Politics, and American Culture

Rigging the Game: How Inequality Is Reproduced in Everyday Life

The Sociologically Examined Life: Pieces of the Conversation

The Sociologically Examined Life: Pieces of the Conversation

Smoke Damage: Voices from the Front Lines of America’s Tobacco Wars