In this Eleventh Edition, the author continues to show students how to see the "unfamiliar in the familiar"-to step back and see organization and predictability in their take-for-granted personal experiences. With his approachable writing style and lively personal anecdotes, the author's goal since the first edition has been the same: to write a textbook that "reads like a real book." Newman uses the metaphors of "architecture" and "construction," to help students understand that society is not something that exists "out there," independently of them; it is a human creation that is planned, formed, maintained, or altered by individuals.