Showing titles in Sociology

Syeda X left the holy city of Banaras (now Varanasi) for Delhi with her young family in the aftermath of riots and communal violence in the early '90s. In Delhi, she settled into the life of a poor migrant, juggling multiple jobs a day - from sewing soccer balls and removing the stems from raisins, to shelling almonds sold in bulk to multinationals and assisting in illegal abortions. Syeda has held over 50 different jobs in 30 years, earning paltry sums in the process. And if she ever took a day off, her job would be lost to another faceless migrant.

Religion is at the heart of man’s societies. ‘For a long time,’ Durkheim writes early on in his book, ‘it has been known that the first systems of representations with which men have pictured to themselves the world and themselves were of religious origin.’  Durkheim decided to examine how and why this phenomenon functioned and evolved - by looking specifically at simple societies and their religions, rather than at religions in more complex or developed societies.

This groundbreaking book shows how to identify your own Unfair Advantages and apply them to any project. Drawing on over two decades of hands-on experience, including as the first Marketing Director of Just Eat (a startup now worth over £4 billion), the authors offer a unique framework for assessing your external circumstances in addition to your internal strengths. Hard work and grit aren't enough, so they explore the importance of money, intelligence, location, education, expertise, status and luck in the journey to success. 

Freakonomics lived on the New York Times bestseller list for an astonishing two years. Now authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with more iconoclastic insights and observations in SuperFreakonomics—the long awaited follow-up to their New York Times Notable blockbuster. Based...

"Utterly fascinating." —Bill Bryson "An incredible journey." —Siddhartha Mukherjee *WINNER OF THE 2025 ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN PUBLISHERS PROSE AWARD FOR BEST BOOK ON BIOLOGY* *2025 NAUTILUS BOOK AWARDS GOLD WINNER FOR SCIENCE AND COSMOLOGY* A groundbreaking exploration of the science of...

From her first day at Westwind Cremation & Burial, 23-year-old Caitlin Doughty threw herself into her curious new profession. Coming face-to-face with the very thing we go to great lengths to avoid thinking about, she started to wonder about the lives of those she cremated and the mourning families they left behind, and found herself confounded by people's erratic reactions to death. Exploring our death rituals - and those of other cultures - she pleads the case for healthier attitudes around death and dying.

Addiction by Design takes listeners into the intriguing world of machine gambling, an increasingly popular and absorbing form of play that blurs the line between human and machine, compulsion and control, risk and reward.

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER / OVER A MILLION COPIES SOLD THE AMERICAN VICE PRESIDENT'S ORIGIN STORY ‘Essential reading for this moment in history’ New York Times 'You will not read a more important book about America this year' Economist ‘Brilliant … offers an acute insight into the...

She Says She's Fine is a 25-episode women's health series from Audible Suno, created and hosted by Dr. Munjaal Kapadia. Why is it difficult for women to prioritise their health? Why is there a vortex of guilt around women's bodies and their medical care? How can we alleviate the fear around women's deepest, most private health concerns? The series takes the shame and stigma away from talking about subjects like sex, contraception, periods, motherhood and miscarriages in the context of changing lifestyle choices, advancements in medical technology, challenging misinformation, myths, unshackling social taboos and more. Every episode takes you through intimate stories and personal struggles to remind you that you are not alone.

Annawadi is a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport, and as India starts to prosper, Annawadians are electric with hope. Abdul, a reflective and enterprising Muslim teenager, sees "a fortune beyond counting" in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away. Asha, a woman of formidable wit and deep scars from a childhood in rural poverty, has identified an alternate route to the middle class: political corruption.

“Its theme is political fanaticism, with which it deals severely and brilliantly.” —New Yorker The famous bestseller with “concise insight into what drives the mind of the fanatic and the dynamics of a mass movement” (Wall Street Journal) by the legendary San Francisco longshoreman. A...

Delve into the world of holistic healthcare, the range of nature-based methods and treatments that are both clinically proven and readily available to you-and that provide an alternative way for you to nurture your own optimal health, disarm stress, and deepen the experience of well-being.These 24 compelling and practical lectures offer a rich spectrum of choices and possibilities for your own healthcare, as well as practical tools for creating a truly healthful lifestyle.

A heartbreaking account of a medical miracle: how one woman’s cells – taken without her knowledge – have saved countless lives. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a true story of race, class, injustice and exploitation. ‘No dead woman has done more for the living . . . A fascinating...

Penguin presents the unabridged, audio download edition of Modern Romance, written and read by Aziz Ansari. People today have more romantic options than at any point in human history, and thanks to social media, smartphones and online dating, our abilities to connect with these options are...

The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and translated into English by Samuel Moore in 1888 under Engels’ supervision, is one of the most influential political texts in modern history. Originally published in 1848, this concise manifesto lays out the principles of communism, the theory of historical materialism, and the role of class struggle as the driving force of history. Marx and Engels call for the working class to unite against capitalist oppression and envision a future society free from class divisions.

Covering diversity and equality, globalization, human rights, modern urban living and the role of work and institutions, The Sociology Book looks at the big questions of how we cooperate: What is society? What makes it tick? Why do we interact in the way that we do with our friends, co-workers, and rivals?

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT...

Brought to you by Penguin. FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL MEGASELLER QUIET: THE POWER OF INTROVERTS IN A WORLD THAT CAN'T STOP TALKING In this inspiring masterpiece, bestselling author Susan Cain shows the power of "bittersweetness" - a tendency toward sorrow and longing, an acute...

lf a man cannot stand freedom, he will probably turn fascist. This, in the fewest possible words, is the essential argument in this modem classic, Escape from Freedom. The author, Erich Fromm, is a distinguished psychologist, late of Berlin and Heidelberg, now of New York City.

The grid is an accident of history and of culture, in no way intrinsic to how we produce, deliver and consume electrical power. Yet this is the system the United States ended up with, a jerry-built structure now so rickety and near collapse that a strong wind or a hot day can bring it to a grinding halt. The grid is now under threat from a new source: renewable and variable energy, which puts stress on its logics as much as its components.