The revised edition is designed as the primary textbook for an introductory course in statistics in the social sciences.

We need only scan a newspaper or magazine, turn on a news broadcast, or open a sociology text or journal to see that we live in an age that is heavily dependent on statistical information. The extent this dependency is such that it is rather difficult to be an educated person without having at least a passing acquaintance with basic statistics. More to the point, it is virtually impossible to be a capable social scientist without having a definite, if elementary, understanding of some basic statistics and statistical methods of analysis. But a casual acquaintance with a few simple statistics will not serve the social scientist who attempts to read competently the literature of the field. And if one wishes to do quantitative social research-and most research published today is quantitative-a more thorough knowledge of statistics is imperative. The aspiring sociologist need only examine the books and articles that are being published today for evidence of this claim. A very large portion of the articles published in the major sociology journals use some form of statistical analysis. Some of these articles and other works published sociologists are incomprehensible without a statistics background; others will simply be read less intelligently or with a lessened sense of appreciation or criticism.

Higher Education: Open for Business addresses a problem in higher learning, which is newly recognized in the academic spotlight: the overcommercialization of higher education. The book asks that you, the reader, think about the following: Did you go to a Coke or Pepsi school? Do your children attend a Nike or Adidas school? Is the college in your town a Dell or Gateway campus? These questions should not be a primary concern for students, parents or faculty in an environment that has to allow students to freely focus on learning. But in a time of fiscal uncertainty, can higher education ignore the benefits of commercial ventures? It may seem foolish to do so. However, commercialism has gotten too close to certain aspects of academia such as the campus environment, classroom activities, academic research, and college sports. This disturbing encroachment of academic ground is addressed in Higher Education: Open for Business by a diverse host of authors who are closely involved in higher learning.