In January 2020 we ushered in a new decade of the twenty-first century and the problems facing U.S. society and our globally, interconnected world seemed profound and stark. We almost went to war with Iran after the U.S. military assassination of Major General Qasem Soleimani. Australia was on fire, with 16 million acres lost in the most devastating wildfire to hit the country, a by-product of global climate injustice. Breaking previous records, in 2019, 76,000 unaccompanied migrant children were captured at the U.S.– Mexico border and 500,000 family units attempted to cross. New figures released by U.S. government officials acknowledged that 5,400 children were separated from their families during the Trump administration's devastating family separation policy. It seemed as if every major city in the U.S. was experiencing a rise of homelessness alongside the fact that the number of Americans lacking health insurance went up. These issues, and the specific themes outlined in this book, demonstrate how our social problems are immediate, material, and interconnected. The United States is on the edge. The edge looks like a loss of safety, a loss of sustainability, a loss of opportunity, a loss of equity, a loss of democracy. So much is at stake and so much is to be gained by learning from our most entrenched social obstacles and initiating purposeful, creative, and just solutions.

The authors in this book expertly do just that. Sociologists and members of The Society for the Study of Social Problems demonstrate our dedication to asking important societal research questions; how we gather empirically rigorous and detailed data; and, lastly, how we apply sophisticated analyses to the issues gripping our nation. Throughout the past year, as we saw heart-wrenching media photos and read news stories of violence, inequity, and powerful actors and institutions that limited rights and social possibility, sociologists were behind the scenes academically studying these problems in depth, with meticulous analyses, and exposing the implications of such social phenomena. Hence, the cross-section of themes covered in this book encompass a range of urgent concerns.