Recommended reading
Here are some of the key texts from the reading lists of modules that you may study during your degree. We recommend them if you would like to do some preliminary reading before you begin your studies. You are under no obligation to purchase any of these books in advance of you starting your course.
Introduction to sociology
General Introductory Textbook
Cohen, R. and Kennedy, P. (2012 or latest edition). Global Sociology. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Classic
*Du Bois, W. E. B., (1903 – 1st edition) (2008). The Souls of Black Folk. Available at:
*Goffman, E., (1959 – 1st edition) (1990). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. London: Penguin.
Marx, K. and Engels, F. (1848) Manifesto of the Communist Party. Available at:
*Mills, C. Wright., (1959 – 1st edition) (2000). The Sociological Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press.
Weber, M., (1920 – 1st edition) (2010). The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. New York: Oxford University Press.
Contemporary
*Adichie, C. N., (2014). We Should All Be Feminists. London: 4th Estate.
Anderson, E., (2001). Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City. New York: WW Norton.
Anderson, E., (2012). The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race and Civility in Everyday Life. New York: WW Norton.
Collins, P. Hill (1990 and 2000) Black Feminist Thought Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge.
*Back, L., (2007). The Art of Listening. Oxford: Berg.
Bonilla-Silva, E., (2017). Racism without Racists (5th edition). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
*Hines, S., (2018). Is Gender Fluid? A Primer for the 21st Century. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd
*Hirsch, A., (2018). Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging. New York: Vintage.
Shukla, N., (ed) (2016). The Good Immigrant. London: Unbound.
Tyler, I., (2013). Revolting Subjects: Social Abjection and Resistance in Neoliberal Britain. London: Zed Books.
Introduction to social policy
*Alcock, P., Erskine, A. & May, M., (Eds.) (2003). The Student’s Companion to Social Policy. (2nd Edition) Oxford, Blackwell. [The 2008 3rd edition, 2012 4th edition, and 2016 5th edition are slightly different and do not contain some of the useful sections on reading and careers, but have similar academic content]
Bradley, H., (1995 and 2016). Fractured Identities: Changing Patterns of Inequality. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Introduction to crime and criminology
Coleman, C. and Norris, C., (2000). Introducing Criminology. Cullompton: Willan.
Croall, H., (2011). Crime and Society in Britain. London, Longman.
Hall, S., Roberts, B., Critcher, C. et al., (1978 and 2013). Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State, and Law and Order (Critical Social Studies). London: Macmillan.
*Newburn, T., (2017). Criminology. London: Routledge.
Introduction to research methods
Bryman, A., (2015). Social Research Methods (5th Edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
*Clark, T., Foster, L., and Bryman, A., (2019). How to Do Your Social Research Project or Dissertation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Introduction to digital media and society
Baym, N., (2015). Personal Connections in the Digital Age (2nd edition). Wiley.
Noble, S., (2018). Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. NYU Press.
Gillespie, T., (2018). Custodians of the Internet: Platforms, Content Moderation, and the Hidden Decisions that Shape Social Media. Yale University Press.
Ess, C., (2013). Digital Media Ethics (2nd edition). Wiley.
Websites
If you'd rather take a look at some useful websites, these are a great place to begin your introduction to sociology, criminology and social policy:
*Particularly popular and accessible, if you want a shorter selection.