Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Social Issues

Acknowledging that current information about social issues is often ingested in sound bites and snippets, the Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Social Issues seeks to bridge the gap between newsstand, newcomer, and expert knowledge. As stated in the preface, editor Michael Shally‐Jensen and entry contributors encourage readers to “appreciate current issues for the complex matters that they are” and generally succeed in that regard. Most useful are the many entries that follow the encyclopedia's guiding principle by tying in recent examples and news stories before getting into more theoretical discussions. All entries provide historical context for the topic at hand and...