Sociology as a Life or Death Issue - Softcover

Robert J. Brym studied sociology in Canada and Israel and received his PhD from the University of Toronto, where he is now on faculty. He has won numerous awards for his teaching and scholarly work, most recently the 2007 Northrop Frye Award, given by the University of Toronto to faculty members for “setting themselves apart through innovation in teaching and commitment to conveying the excitement and importance of research to undergraduate and graduate students.” His main areas of research are in political sociology, race and ethnic relations, and sociology of culture. His work has been translated into half a dozen languages. His major books include Intellectuals and Politics (London and Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1980); From Culture to Power (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1989), with Bonnie Fox; The Jews of Moscow, Kiev, and Minsk (New York: New York University Press, 1994), with Rozalina Ryvkina; and Sociology as a Life or Death Issue (New York and Toronto: Penguin, 2007). He has also published two popular introductory sociology textbooks: New Society, 5th ed. (Toronto: Nelson, 2007) and Sociology: Your Compass for a New World, 2nd Canadian ed. (Toronto: Nelson, 2007), with John Lie and Steven Rytina. He is now heading an SSHRC-funded research project on suicide bombers in Israel and Palestine, the first results of which were reported in Robert J. Brym and Bader Araj, “Suicide bombing as strategy and interaction: The case of the second intifada,” Social Forces (84, 4: 2006) pp. 1965-82 and Robert J. Brym and Bader Araj, “Palestinian suicide bombing revisited: A critique of the outbidding thesis,” Political Science Quarterly (forthcoming, 2007).

Using death as a central theme is an unusual way to introduce sociology. The subject is not trivial, and is of interest to everyone. Thus, tying it to sociology can only awaken the curiosity of the reader

 –Jack Veugelers, University of Toronto

“Fantastic! I love the short punchy arguments, ranging across cases. Bravo. Very inspiring.”

– James Ron, Norman Paterson School for International Affairs, Carleton University

“Terrific book. Extremely well written. I love the cases Brym chose.”

– Neil McLaughlin, Sociology, McMaster University

“Powerful, effective collection.”

– Hugh Lautard, Sociology, University of New Brunswick

“A beautiful little book.”

– Jonah Butovsky, Sociology, Brock University