Reader's Guide to the Social Sciences

The volume of secondary material now available to students is often overwhelming. TheReader's Guide to the Social Sciencesoffers students, teachers, researchers, and librarians help and advice on how to find what they want. TheReader's Guideis a guide to reading--it provides expert guidance to and critical analysis of the vast number of books available in hundred of specific topics. This 2-volume work includes approximately 1,200 entries in A-Z order, critically reviewing the literature on specific topics from abortion to world systems theory. In addition, nine major entries cover each of the major disciplines (political economy; management and business; human geography; politics; sociology; law; psychology; organizational behavior) and the history and development of the social sciences in a broader sense. Each entry lists the key texts published on the topic (normally 6-12 books or articles), followed by an essay of 800-1000 words that discusses these texts. The essaysprovide the reader with advice on the quality, emphasis, range and depth of coverage, and point of view, of each book listed in the bibliography. The major survey articles act as a large scale map of the discipline, enabling readers to put the standard length entries into context, to understand the historical development of the discipline, and to review key controversies and points of departure between different schools of thought. The entries inReader's Guide to the Social Sciencesare fully cross-referenced and allow the reader to access scholarship in social science topics across a diverse range of often confusing disciplines.