Robert J. Brym studied sociology in Canada and Israel. He is now on faculty at the University of Toronto, which awarded him the 2007 Northrop Frye Award for combining excellence in teaching and research. He especially enjoys teaching introductory sociology to 1,400 students in Canada's biggest university course. Bob has lectured at Harvard, Oberlin College, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Moscow State University, the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco in Brazil, and other universities. He has written many books and articles about the social bases of politics in Russia and Canada, and he recently received a large research grant to study suicide bombers in Israel. His Nelson textbooks… include New Society, Sociology: Your Compass for a New World, Sociology: The Points of the Compass, and Society in Question. His most recent book for Nelson is Sociology as a Life or Death Issue, which demonstrates the promise of the sociological imagination by analyzing hip-hop culture, Palestinian suicide bombers, and the plight of victims of hurricanes in the Caribbean region and on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.