Through an engaging writing style, the author invites readers to analyze how social policies reflect the various interests and values of the parties involved and how social problems and policies affect their daily lives. This cutting edge work focuses on the centrality of race, class, and gender in understanding people's life experiences and social problems in the U.S. and other nations. It includes a humanist and feminist perspective as it strives to show how people - especially people of color and white women - are shown not merely as "victims" of social problems, but also as individuals seeking to bring about change in families, schools, workplaces, and the larger society.