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Book reviewed in this article:Environmental Sociology: A Social Constructionist Perspective, by John A. Hannigan. New York: Routledge, 1995, 236 pages. Paper, $18.95.It is important to note, however, that environmental risks and problems as socially constructed entities need not undercut legitimate claims about the condition of the environment, thereby denying them an objective reality…. Similarly, social constructionism does not deny the independent causal powers of nature but rather asserts that the rank ordering of these problems by social actors does not always directly correspond to actual need. (p. 30)Challenging Codes: Collective Action in the Information Age, by Alberto Melucci. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996,441 pages. Cloth, $34.95.Reconfiguring the Truth: Postmodernism, Science Studies, and the Search for a New Model of Knowledge, by Steven C. Ward. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Little‐field, 1996, 184 pages. Cloth, $52.50; paper, $21.95.One Dies, Get Another: Convict Leasing in the American South, 1866–1928, by Matthew J. Mancini. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1996, 293 pages. Cloth, $34.95.Becoming American, Becoming Ethnic: College Students Explore Their Roots, edited by Thomas Dublin. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996, 241 pages. Paper, $18.95.The Occupation of Alcatraz Island: Indian Self‐Determination and the Rise of Indian Activism, by Troy R. Johnson. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996, 273 pages. Paper, $16.95.The Image of Man: The Creation of Modern Masculinity, by George L. Mosse. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996, 232 pages. Cloth, $25.00.Women, Work, and Gender Relations in Developing Countries: A Global Perspective, edited by Parvin Ghorayshi and Claire Belanger. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996, 246 pages. Cloth, $59.95.Muslim Politics, by Dale F. Eickelman and James Piscatori. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996, 235 pages. Cloth, $39.50; paper, $13.95.Asian American Women and Men: Labor, Laws, and Love, by Yen Le Espiritu. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1997, 146 pages. Cloth, $35.00; paper, $14.95.Desert Capitalism: Maquiladoras in North America's Western Industrial Corridor, by Kathryn Kopinak. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1996, 232 pages. Cloth, $45.00.

Several scholars have argued that the continuing disadvantage of Blacks vis‐à‐vis Whites has more to do with social class factors than with race. Other scholars have suggested that differences in family structure account for Black disadvantage. This study addresses these issues in terms of housing values by analyzing (1) the effects of race on housing values net of socioeconomic status and other relevant demographic variables, (2) the interaction of race with socioeconomic status in determining housing values, (3) the interaction of race with household structure in determining housing values and, (4) changes in the relative impact of race on housing values from 1970 to 1990. The findings indicate that Blacks own homes of lower value regardless of their socioeconomic status or household structure. Additionally, the negative effect of race was greater for Blacks of higher status. However, there was a stronger negative association between race and housings values in 1970 than in 1980 or 1990, providing some evidence for a narrowing of the Black‐White gap in housing values. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Charismatic authority has been central to twentieth‐century politics and theory, yet confusion about charisma is rife. Max Weber's classic texts on this subject have been a major source of insight, yet key features of his analysis remain obscure–so much so that many scholars who call themselves Weber's disciples defend views opposed to his. For Weber, charisma is a social status; for many "Weberians," charisma is a personal quality. For Weber, charisma is a quicksilver, unstable form of authority; for his errant followers, it is an existential limit to democracy. One reason for this contradiction is that, influenced by the theologian Rudolf Sohm, Weber used the vocabulary of the theology of grace. Many readers, unfamiliar with the nature of Weber's debt to theology, have thought that Weber, like Rudolf Sohm, viewed charisma as a divinely given personal quality. In fact, however, Max Weber's sociology of charisma is radically opposed to Sohm's theology.

A major theme in social theory concerns the transformation of social relationships in small communities as a result of modernization. This paper examines changing social relations in some small towns in southeastern Pennsylvania. For several hundred years, the residents of these towns have continuously developed institutions to preserve their local identity and maintain personal relations at the same time that they are incorporated into larger, regional social systems. The same local institutions and relations, however, are replicated in each small town, suggesting that local and particular interests are expressed through regional institutions. Although focused on a few small towns in one region of the United States, this paper examines the local expression of processes which are global.