Lisa Wade - Terrible Magnificent Sociology (First Edition)

When I was a child, I did not live in so-called good school districts. I never took an AP class; if I was gifted, nobody in my high school much noticed. I took the SAT but didnt know I was supposed to study for it. Though I applied to a handful of colleges, I was only admitted to one. And when I arrived for move-in day, it was the first time Id ever set foot on a college campus. I never could have imagined that someday I would write a book like this.

Sociology has given me so much: a career, peers, even friends. It has given me a platform from which to contribute meaningfully to public debate. But more than anything, its given me purpose. Sociology helps us see the social forces that transcend the individual and, with that lens, it empowers us to try to make the world a better place. To teach sociology is to give people the tools they need to remake their societies. And while Ive had the opportunity to share sociology with many different kinds of people in myriad ways, this book is among the most incredible opportunities Ive ever been afforded.

First and foremost, I wanted the book to be a good read. I devoted myself to writing crisply and engagingly. I looked for rich examples and clear statistics. I steered into rather than away from emotions, knowing that sociology not only can, but should, inspire curiosity, awe, intrigue, and delight, as well as disappointment, frustration, and even righteous anger. There is no excuse for sociology to be anything but riveting.

I did my best to do justice to the diversity of voices that have contributed to sociological thought, both in the past and today. That meant not only being inclusive but placing this wide array of scholars shoulder to shoulder with those who have historically been lifted up as our founding fathers. To do this, I was determined to be inclusive far beyond the central sociological concerns with race, class, and gender, and their intersections. Without diminishing the importance of these axes of identity, this book is also attentive to sexual orientation, disability, age, body size, citizenship status, the rural/urban divide, and more. I teach expressly about the value of standpoint, while modeling what it means to take diversity of viewpoint seriously. I hope readers will see themselves reflected not just in what sociologists study but in who sociologists are.

My vision also included a somewhat different approach to the lay of the sociological land. I start with an innovative chapter on the self. Most readers have grown up with the tradition of American individualism, an ideology that sits uncomfortably alongside sociologys basic premise: that there are social forces that transcend individuals. I tackle this problem head-on. In , I show that the individual self is, paradoxically, itself a social fact. Prepped with this astounding idea, readers are better able to accept the role of social facts in shaping other features of daily life.

I also felt it was important to include a chapter that theorizes social organizations, institutions, and structures. These are challenging ideas that deserve careful explication, especially if readers are to fully comprehend the nature of social inequality. This book takes the time to fully introduce them. Likewise, I include a chapter on elite power. All too often we focus on the disadvantages that accrue to some but fail to shine a light on the advantages that accrue to othersand the work they do to preserve those advantages. Elites do not go unexamined here.

I introduce historical figures and sociological research methods throughout the text instead of at the beginning. I do not expect readers to care about the modes of data collection for findings they have not yet encountered and the history of a field they have not yet studied. So, these things are introduced when they become relevant to the books overall intellectual trajectory. Comprehensive discussions of both sociological history and research methods are also included as appendices.

Roughly speaking, the book is organized in such a way as to introduce core theoretical concepts, address the complex phenomena of social inequality, and explore the potential for social change. Instead of sending readers off with just a few inspiring words, each of the final three chapters is aimed at empowering people to become not just sociological thinkers but engaged and efficacious members of their communities, both large and small. The book ends optimistically, without downplaying the real challenges we face or laying all the responsibility for social change on the next generation.