Discourse and the Making of Human Worlds is the definitive new textbook from bestselling author, James Paul Gee. This accessible textbook equips readers with the tools to understand how language shapes identity, community, and reality.

Gee introduces big "D" Discourses, the integrated ways of saying-doing-being-valuing-believing that create socially recognizable identities, from doctor to gamer, birder to software engineer. The text not only covers how Discourses are acquired but how people exit them, through unmetabolized experience, loss of authority, and discovery of alternative communities. Rich case studies span Augustine and Malcolm X to Tara Westover and Megan Phelps-Roper, with engaging examples including Supreme Court rulings, Christian nationalism, and classroom miscommunication. The final chapters develop a theory of trauma, transformation, and deep learning, showing how experience that hasn't yet found meaning drives Discourse change.

This engaging and timely textbook allows readers to gain critical insight into why people on opposing sides inhabit different realities-and what enables genuine perspective change. With clear explanations, diverse case studies, and practical applications to contemporary political and social issues, this textbook is essential for graduate and advanced undergraduate courses in discourse analysis, applied and sociocultural linguistics, literacy studies, education, and the sociology and anthropology of language.

James Paul Gee is a Regents Professor, Emeritus, at Arizona State University, USA. He is the author of numerous titles including the bestselling textbook: An Introduction to Discourse Analysis-Theory and Method (5th edition 2025) and its companion text, How to do Discourse Analysis (3rd edition 2025); Introducing Discourse Analysis (2017); Unified Discourse Analysis- Language, Reality, Virtual Worlds and Video Games (2014) and Social Linguistics and Literacies (2007) , all published by Routledge.