The cover of Penguin’s Dictionary of Sociology shows a cluster of birds weighing down a utility line; and, far away from the main cluster, a single solitary bird, looking in the other direction.

If you understand the genius of that image with that title, you probably want this book. If you laughed at that image, you definitely want this book. If you don’t understand why that cover is either fitting or funny, you probably don’t want the Dictionary of Sociology. But you still need it.

That’s because authors Nicholas Abercrombie, Stephen Hill and Bryan S. Turner have made their dictionary not just a useful reference in the sometimes esoteric field of sociology, but a pocket guide to history and citizenship, too. Here can be found the means to dismantle propaganda and the language to call for social revolution. And perhaps most satisfying, it is a handy guide to the most elaborate one-word insults in the English language. At last, you can equate the parents/politician/TV station of your choice with the proper form of corrupt government, without fear of a first-year college student correcting your terminology. You’ll have your examples ready and your definition close at hand, thanks to Penguin’s lovely guide. All this, and it’s fun to read. How many dictionaries can make that claim?

Compact and clever, the Dictionary of Sociology is a utilitarian treat.

You know, utilitarian?

John Stuart Mill?

Go ahead. Look it up.