The tenth edition of Human Societies is more substantially revised and updated than any single new edition of this classic text in the last twenty years. Readers will find the basic theoretical framework of Human Societies unchanged, but the application of this framework has been expended to analyze many of today’s current issues and developments.
These changes and new developments include: • Complete rewrite of the chapter on less developed societies in today’s world, including extensive discussions of the impact of economic and political globalization on these societies. • New analysis of the outsourcing of jobs from industrial societies to some of the less developed countries. • More on the increased immigration from these less developed societies to the industrial societies of Europe and North America. • Coverage of new and militant forms of religious fundamentalism, especially in Muslim societies, although not in them alone—and the economic and political impact of fundamentalism worldwide. • New materials added on a variety of subjects ranging from the highly restrictive role of women in agrarian societies of the past to the impact of technology in promoting the growing generation gap in modern societies. • New discussion of the implications of China’s growing economic power. • An updated critique of free-market capitalism. • A new boxed insert discussing "The Myth of Primitive Environmentalism." • New material on the impact of the Internet and other new technologies. • Statistical data have been updated throughout the text