An Introduction to Sociology: Sixteen Essential Ideas from Classic and Contemporary Thinkers
Fred Pampel, 2025
Looking for something different in your Introduction to Sociology course? My newest book offers an alternative or supplement to the typical textbook. It avoids the all-too-brief coverage of an overwhelming set of terms, facts, and topics that students face in Introductory Sociology. Instead, it surveys the essential ideas and topics within sociology by focusing on people, exploring ideas in depth, and reflecting the excitement and discovery that make sociology so fascinating.
The book covers the major topics of an Introduction to Sociology course, but by linking biography to key ideas and fully developing the ideas, it makes the material interesting and memorable to students.
Dr. Fred C. Pampel is Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Research Professor and Fellow in the Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado Boulder. He has served as the director of the University of Colorado Population Center and as Associate Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Colorado Boulder. His expertise includes demography, health, inequality, research methods, and statistical analysis. He is the author of 19 books and over 80 peer-reviewed research articles in professional journals. His research on cross-national patterns of population aging, cohort change, and smoking has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. In the area of evaluation research, he has served as the methodologist in randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental designs that have evaluated programs to improve the literacy of minority preschoolers, provide short-term counseling for government workers, reduce the recidivism of offenders on probation, and reduce violence in disadvantaged neighborhoods.