Sociology

Robert K. Ressler, John E. Douglas, Horace J. Heafner

Sexual Homicide: Patterns and Motives

Emile Durkheim

The Rules of Sociological Method

Erving Goffman

Behavior in Public Places: Notes on the Social Organization of Gatherings

Anna Freud, Joseph Goldstein, Albert J. Solnit

Beyond the Best Interests of the Child: Volume 1

Charisse Jones, Kumea Shorter-Gooden

Shifting: The Double Lives of Black Women in America

Based on the African American Women's Voices Project designed and implemented by the authors, this important and compelling book reveals that a huge number of African-American women feel pressure to compromise their true selves in order to fit into American society.

Eric Hoffer

The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

A stevedore on the San Francisco docks in the 1940s, Hoffer wrote philosophical treatises examining mass movements--from Christianity in its infancy to the national uprisings of modern times. His analysis of the psychology of mass movements is a brilliant and frightening study of the mind of the fanatic.

Gregg O. McCrary

The Unknown Darkness: Profiling the Predators Among Us

Drawing on more than 1,000 cases, a former FBI profiler takes the reader behind the crime scene to examine in raw, first-person close-up, the lethal competition between America's most dangerous predators and the dedicated souls who pledge to put them away.

Naomi Wolf

The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women

The bestselling classic that redefined our view od the relationship between beauty and female identity. In today's world, women have more power, legal recognition, and professional success than ever before. Alongside the evident progress of the women's movement, however, writer and journalist Naomi Wolf is troubled by a different kind of social control, which, she argues, may prove just as restrictive as the traditional image of homemaker and wife. It's the beauty myth, an obsession with physical perfection that traps the modern woman in an endless spiral of hope, self-consciousness, and self-hatred as she tries to fulfill society's impossible definition of "the flawless beauty."

Bernard Goldberg

Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News

"Bias" blows the whistle on bias in the news including Bernard Goldberg's own network, CBS, and its chief guru, Dan Rather. Breaking ranks and naming names, the Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist reveals a corporate news culture in which the close-mindedness is breathtaking and entertainment wins over hard news every time.

Nicolas Corono Vaca

The Presumed Alliance: The Unspoken Conflict Between Latinos and Blacks and What It Means for America

As Latino and African Americans increasingly live side by side in large urban centers, as well as in suburban clusters, the idealized concept of a "Rainbow Coalition" would suggest that these two disenfranchised groups are natural political allies. Indeed, as the number of Latinos has increased dramatically over the last ten years, competition over power and resources between these two groups has led to surprisingly antagonistic and uncooperative interactions. Many African Americans now view Latinos, because of their growth in numbers, as a threat to their social, economic, and political gains. Vaca debunks the myth of "The Great Union" and offers the hope he believes each community could learn from, in order to achieve a mutually agreed upon agenda. More than simply unveiling the problem, The Presumed Alliance offers optimistic solutions to the future relations between Latino and Black America.

Fergus M. Bordewich

Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America's First Civil Rights Movement

Interweaving thrilling personal stories with the politics of slavery and abolition, this work shows how the Underground Railroad gave birth to America's first racially integrated, religiously inspired movement for social change.

Jean Shinoda Bolen

Goddesses in Everywoman: Powerful Archetypes in Women's Lives

Burton L. Mack

Who Wrote the New Testament?: The Making of the Christian Myth

Burton Mack, the most radical of the premier Jesus scholars, details how the Christian myth was created. 2 maps.

Barbara C. Sproul

Primal Myths: Creation Myths Around the World

Myths proclaim such attitudes toward reality. They organize the way we perceive facts and understand ourselves and the world. Whether we adhere to them consciously or not, they remain pervasively influential. The author has chosen the most powerful myths, offering examples from each religious tradition.

Marilyn Johnson

The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries

In wry and lucid prose, Johnson takes a mordantly funny look at the history and practice of "the ultimate human-interest story," the obituary.

Lisa Takeuchi Cullen

Remember Me: A Lively Tour of the New American Way of Death

In a colorful, conversational, irreverent, and even hilarious narrative, journalist Cullen travels America chronicling the reinvention of the rites and business of the American funeral.

Michael Largo

Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die

Largo takes an eye-opening and irreverent look at the truth behind kicking the bucket--the definitive A-to-Z illustrated sourcebook on the ways people die. 400+ medical and historical illustrations.

Jay P. Kinney

The Masonic Myth: Unlocking the Truth about the Symbols, the Secret Rites, and the History of Freemasonry

Timed to coincide with the release of Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol, The Masonic Myth" is an accessible and fascinating history of the Freemasons that debunks the myths and sheds new light on this secret fraternity.

Eric Marcus

Is It a Choice? - 3rd Edition: Answers to the Most Frequently Asked Questions about Gay & Lesbian People

The answers to all the questions you've ever had about homosexuality but were afraid to ask are finally in one book, Is It a Choice? In this newly revised and updated edition, Eric Marcus provides insightful, no-nonsense answers to hundreds of the most commonly asked questions about homosexuality. Offering frank insight on everything you've always wanted-and needed-to know about same-gender relationships, coming out, family roles, politics, and much more, including: How do you know if you're gay or lesbian? What should you do if your child is gay or lesbian? Do gay parents raise gay children? If you think a friend is gay or lesbian, what should you say? Why do gay men and women want to get married? What does the Bible say about homosexuality?

William T. Vollmann

Poor People

A National Book Award-winning author travels the globe and meets with impoverished individuals where they live to document firsthand the causes and effects of poverty. Two 16-page photo inserts.