Book Reviews
writing to be read
by monte bute
Sociology has long been notorious for its use of jargon and impenetrable prose. 
Sociologists writing badly inspired the editor of Fowler’s Modern English Usage to coin a new word-sociologese. These bad habits have rendered scholarly articles and books mostly unreadable. In short, the monograph has become a charnel house for academic prose. Good writing, particularly in non- scholarly venues, is essential for a truly public sociology.
(Full text of George Orwell’s Why I Write and Politics and the English Language are available online.)
Purchase this article from UC Press
edible sociology
by jennifer a. jordan
Thomas McNamee’s Alice Waters and Chez Panisse and Peter Kaminsky’s Pig Perfect haven’t 
received quite as much coverage as other recent food books. But both definitely deserve to be read by anyone interested not only in pigs and vegetables but also in bigger, more sociological questions about systems of food production and distribution, and the kinds of landscapes and lifestyles produced by particular sets of tastes and regulations.
