This course is to provide students with a general survey of the field of sociology. The lectures, readings, and assignments will focus on understanding the basic social processes and how sociological concepts can be applied to everyday events, both small and large, both personal and political. With this in mind, the course begins by focusing on the development of the ‘self’ and identity, as well as the rules that guide interaction between individuals. Then, in the second part of the course, we will examine how large-scale social changes and the organization of society affect us as individuals. In the second part of the course, we will also explore how institutions and social interaction create and reproduce social inequality. And in the final part of the course, we will see how all of this applies to contemporary U.S. society.