“Nelsen’s book makes sociology come alive—makes it real—for my Introductory students and is an excellent companion volume to the more standard introductory texts. His readable style of writing and choice of entertaining topics combine to engage my students in finding out more about important social issues (the sources and outcomes of friendly sociability; the search for identity in community; the enduring conflicts and problems of social and economic inequality grounded in class, gender and ethnic-racial differences; and the role of protest in social change), encouraging them to explore in depth what the sociological imagination has to offer.”