In this new book, David Silverman provides a clear introduction to Sack's work and reassesses its value for sociology, linguistics, anthropology and psychology. Using a variety of examples, he explains Sacks's ideas on method, language and talk-in-interaction. He argues that Sacks's work offers a highly original perspective on language and social life and raises fundamental questions for the social sciences - questions which, after more than twenty years, remain vitally important and largely unanswered.

Written in a lively and accessible way, this book will be of particular interest to students of sociology, sociolinguistics, social theory and method, but it will also be of interest to students and researchers in anthropology, psychology and related disciplines.