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  • Just the Facts

    Untangling Contradictory Claims

    by Joel Best ...
    Why can’t we seem to agree on facts? In this succinct volume, sociologist Joel Best turns his inimitable eye toward the social construction of what we think is true. He evaluates how facts emerge from our social worlds—including our beliefs, values, tastes, and norms—and how they align with those worlds’ standards. He argues that by developing a sociological perspective toward what we think we ... Read more

    $23.79 USD

  • Is That True?

    Critical Thinking for Sociologists

    by Joel Best ...
    Across disciplines, critical thinking is praised, taught, and put into practice. But what does it actually mean to think critically? In this brief volume, sociologist Joel Best examines how to evaluate arguments and the evidence used to support them as he hones in on how to think in the field of sociology and beyond.With inimitable style that melds ethnographic verve with dry humor, Best examines ... Read more

    $23.79 USD

  • Kids Gone Wild

    From Rainbow Parties to Sexting, Understanding the Hype Over Teen Sex

    The myths and truths of teen's sexual behavior.Winner of the 2015 Brian McConnell Book Award presented by the International Society for Contemporary Legend ResearchTo hear mainstream media sources tell it, the sexlives of modern teenagers outpace even the smuttiest of cable television shows.Teen girls "sext" explicit photos to boys they like; they wear "sex bracelets"that signify what sexual ... Read more

    $20.19 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

  • Damned Lies and Statistics

    Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists

    by Joel Best ...
    Here, by popular demand, is the updated edition to Joel Best's classic guide to understanding how numbers can confuse us. In his new afterword, Best uses examples from recent policy debates to reflect on the challenges to improving statistical literacy. Since its publication ten years ago, Damned Lies and Statistics has emerged as the go-to handbook for spotting bad statistics and learning to ... Read more

    $19.99 USD

  • Images of Issues

    Typifying Contemporary Social Problems

    Edited by Joel Best ...
    Series series Social Problems & Social Issues
    Constructionist theory describes and analyzes social problems as emerging through the efforts of claimsmakers who bring issues to public attention. By typifying a problem and characterizing it as a particular sort, claimsmakers can shape policymaking and public response to the problem. Th is new edition of Images of Issues addresses claimsmaking in the 1990s, featuring such issues as fathers' ... Read more

    $67.99 USD

  • Everyone's a Winner

    Life in Our Congratulatory Culture

    by Joel Best ...
    Every kindergarten soccer player gets a trophy. Many high schools name dozens of seniors as valedictorians—of the same class. Cars sport bumper stickers that read "USA—Number 1." Prizes proliferate in every corner of American society, and excellence is trumpeted with ratings that range from "Academy Award winner!" to "Best Neighborhood Pizza!" In Everyone’s a Winner, Joel Best— acclaimed author of ... Read more

    $29.69 USD

  • The Stupidity Epidemic

    Worrying About Students, Schools, and America’s Future

    by Joel Best ...
    Series series Framing 21st Century Social Issues
    Critics often warn that American schools are failing, and that our students are ill-prepared for the challenges the future holds, and may even be "the dumbest generation." We can think of these claims as warning about a Stupidity Epidemic. This essay begins by tracing the history of the idea of that American students, teachers, and schools are somehow getting worse; the record shows that critics ... Read more

    $52.99 USD

  • Stat-Spotting

    A Field Guide to Identifying Dubious Data

    by Joel Best ...
    Does a young person commit suicide every thirteen minutes in the United States? Are four million women really battered to death by their husbands or boyfriends each year? Is methamphetamine our number one drug problem today? Alarming statistics bombard our daily lives, appearing in the news, on the Web, seemingly everywhere. But all too often, even the most respected publications present numbers ... Read more

    $19.99 USD

  • American Nightmares

    Social Problems in an Anxious World

    by Joel Best ...
    In an accessible and droll style, well-known sociologist Joel Best shines a light on how we navigate these anxious, insecure social times. While most of us still strive for the American Dream—to graduate from college, own a home, work toward early retirement—recent generations have been told that the next generation will not be able to achieve these goals, that things are getting—or are on the ... Read more

    $28.49 USD

  • The Student Loan Mess

    How Good Intentions Created a Trillion-Dollar Problem

    This illuminating investigation uncovers the full dimensions of the student loan disaster. A father and son team—one a best-selling sociologist, the other a former banker and current quantitative researcher—probes how we’ve reached the point at which student loan debt—now exceeding $1 trillion and predicted to reach $2 trillion by 2020—threatens to become the sequel to the mortgage meltdown. In ... Read more

    $25.69 USD

  • Troubling Children

    Studies of Children and Social Problems

    by Joel Best ...
    Series series Social Problems & Social Issues
    Increasingly, sociologists have turned their attention to the social problems of children– in particular, of younger children. This collection reflects those recent interest. While most researchers have focused on social problems involving adolescents, this volume offers instead original case studies of problems concerning preadolescent children.The papers that Best has gathered here represent ... Read more

    $65.99 USD

  • The Satanism Scare

    by Joel Best ...
    Series series Social Institutions and Social Change Series
    Although there is growing concern over Satanism as a threat to American life, the topic has received surprisingly little serious attention. Recognizing this, the editors of this volume have selected papers from a wide variety of disciplines, broadly covering contemporary aspects of Satanism from the vantage points of studies in folklore, cults, religion, deviance, rock music, rumor, and the mass ... Read more

    $65.99 USD