With its vibrant narrative, engaging pedagogy, currency and theoretical scholarship, this text uses a wealth of multicultural and global examples to provide students with substantive coverage of sociological concepts. It integrates global analyses throughout, so that students learn to think critically about sociology as a discipline. New material on social diversity discusses differences among four cultural groups - Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans - on various topics, such as socialization, aging, education, economics, religion, and politics.