A compact early-80s sociology primer from Anthony Giddens, written before “late modernity” became the sort of phrase that escaped the seminar room and started menacing innocent bystanders.

This is Giddens laying out sociology not as a pile of inert concepts, but as a way of reading modern society under the pressures it exerts upon us. Class, capitalism, industrialisation, corporate power, technology, tradition, critique, social change — all the clean old machinery of sociological explanation.

Good for readers wanting an accessible but serious entry point into sociology, especially those interested in the Marx / Weber / Durkheim lineage, modernity, class analysis, and how social theory tries to explain why everyday life feels less “natural” than it pretends to be.

Macmillan paperback. First edition 1982; this copy is a later early reprint, with “Reprinted 1982, 1983” stated. Some cover rubbing/handling visible, but overall looks like a solid clean reading copy.