Synopses & Reviews
"In this powerful book, Marianne Cooper weaves together carefully researched data about growing economic insecurity and gripping stories of families coping with these trends. Cooper has written an intimate look into what families are up against and the strategies they use to navigate the challenges they face.
Cut Adrift provides a compelling examination of the pressing economic issues of our time."Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook and Founder, LeanIn.org
"Too often the statistics about rising insecurity crowd out the real-life stories of families struggling to adjust to new realities. With this deeply researched examination of families living in the nations tech capital of Silicon Valley, Marianne Cooper reminds us why the statistics matter. She offers not only a wrenching journey into the lives of the insecure but a revealing framework for understanding the varied ways in which Americans are coping, or not, with increased financial risk and strain."Jacob S. Hacker, Yale University, author of The Great Risk Shift and Winner-Take-All Politics.
"With great insight, Marianne Cooper shows us how Americans are coping in an era of heightened economic anxietywith the wealthier seeking ever greater financial security and the poorer trying to accommodate ever greater precariousness. Such upscaling and downscaling explains much of the emotional reality behind the menacing economic conditions in modern America."Robert Reich, Chancellors Professor of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley
"By providing a glimpse into the lives of families under economic pressure, Cooper enables us to see what happens when a nation fails to modernize its relationship to women and helps us understand what we need to do about it.."Maria Shriver, mother, award-winning journalist and producer, founder of The Shriver Report, and former First Lady of California.
"Cut Adrift is one of the best books I have read in a long time. Coopers study of families from different social classes shows how worries about financial security penetrate the rhythm of daily life in all of the families (albeit in different ways). The book has impressive ethnographic detail, clarity of the analysis, and originality. My students loved it. Highly recommended!"Annette Lareau, University of Pennsylvania, President, American Sociological Association
"Talking with moms at soccer matches, accompanying anxious shoppers at the mall, listening to news of a pink slip, Marianne Cooper takes an emotion-sensing stethoscope to the hearts of parentsfrom richest to poorestin Silicon Valley, California. In an age of insecurity, Cooper finds that each family assigns a 'designated worrier' to manage anxiety about drawing toor going overthe financial edge. This is a brilliant book and a must-read."Arlie Hochschild, author of The Second Shift, The Outsourced Self, and So Hows the Family? and Other Essays.
"An important and insightful examination of family life during an economic downturn."Vicki Smith, University of California, Davis, author of Crossing the Great Divide: Worker Risk and Opportunity in the New Economy
"A poignant, powerful story of how families are coping with rampant economic insecurity."Allison Pugh, University of Virginia, author of Longing and Belonging: Parents, Children, and Consumer Culture
Review
"Accessible, elucidating, and grounded in real stories. . . . Cooper offers a robust analysis of gender dynamics, with sharp insights about the heavy burden on women to manage the familys anxiety. Coopers necessary and timely study is a discomfiting reminder of the human cost of the recession." STARRED REVIEW
Review
"Coopers interviewees are fascinating, heartbreakingly optimistic in their poverty or head-shakingly preoccupied with their wealth (which is never enough). . . . A well-told, personal representation of whats happened to real people in times of 'income stagnation, growing inequality, increasing economic instability, soaring debt, and rising costs.'”
Review
"Revelatory."
Review
andldquo;This volume is part of an excellent series on the history of anthropology. There is no current series like it, and the editors are among the best scholars in this field.andrdquo;andmdash;Paul Shankman, author of The Trashing of Margaret Mead: Anatomy of an Anthropological Controversyand#160;and#160;
Review
andldquo;Well worth the reading. It is a valuable addition to the genre.andrdquo;andmdash;Frank A. Salamone, author of Charlie Parker: The Trickster of Jazz
Review
andldquo;This is quality scholarship that will be of interest to specialists in history, American studies, African American studies, journalism, English, media studies, sociology, and sports studies, among others.andrdquo;andmdash;Trey Strecker, editor of NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture and assistant professor in the Department of English at Ball State Universityand#160;
Synopsis
Cut Adrift makes an important and original contribution to the national conversation about inequality and risk in American society. Set against the backdrop of rising economic insecurity and rolled-up safety nets, Marianne Coopers probing analysis explores what keeps Americans up at night. Through poignant case studies, she reveals what families are concerned about, how they manage their anxiety, whose job it is to worry, and how social class shapes all of these dynamics, including what is even worth worrying about in the first place. This powerful study is packed with intriguing discoveries ranging from the surprising anxieties of the rich to the critical role of women in keeping struggling families afloat. Through tales of stalwart stoicism, heart-wrenching worry, marital angst, and religious conviction,
Cut Adrift deepens our understanding of how families are coping in a go-it-alone ageand how the different strategies on which affluent, middle-class, and poor families rely upon not only reflect inequality, but fuel it.
Synopsis
"An important and insightful examination of family life during an economic downturn."Vicki Smith, author of
Crossing the Great Divide: Worker Risk and Opportunity in the New Economy
"A poignant, powerful story of how families are coping with rampant economic insecurity."Allison Pugh, author of Longing and Belonging: Parents, Children, and Consumer Culture
Synopsis
"
Cut Adrift is one of the best books I have read in a long time. Cooper highlights the emotional labor connected to familial finances. Here ethnographic study of families of different social classes shows how worries about financial security penetrate the rhythm of daily life in all of the families (albeit in different ways). The book has impressive ethnographic detail, clarity of the analysis, and originality. My students loved it. Highly recommended!"Annette Lareau, University of Pennsylvania, President, American Sociological Association
"An important and insightful examination of family life during an economic downturn."Vicki Smith, author of Crossing the Great Divide: Worker Risk and Opportunity in the New Economy
"A poignant, powerful story of how families are coping with rampant economic insecurity."Allison Pugh, author of Longing and Belonging: Parents, Children, and Consumer Culture
Synopsis
The Histories of Anthropology Annual series presents diverse perspectives on the disciplineand#8217;s history within a global context, with a goal of increasing awareness and use of historical approaches in teaching, learning, and doing anthropology. Critical, comparative, analytical, and narrative studies involving all aspects and subfields of anthropology are included.
This ninth volume of the series, Corridor Talk to Culture History showcases geographic diversity by exploring how anthropologists have presented their methods and theories to the public and in general to a variety of audiences. Contributors examine interpretive and methodological diversity within anthropological traditions often viewed from the standpoint of professional consensus, the ways anthropological relations cross disciplinary boundaries, and the contrast between academic authority and public culture, which is traced to the professionalization of anthropology and other social sciences in the nineteenth century. Essays showcase the research and personalities of Alexander Goldenweiser, Robert Lowie, Harlan I. Smith, Fustel de Coulanges, Edmund Leach, Carl Withers, and Margaret Mead, among others.
Synopsis
The campaign for racial equality in sports has both reflected and affected the campaign for racial equality in the United States. Some of the most significant and publicized stories in this campaign in the twentieth century have happened in sports, including, of course, Jackie Robinson in baseball; Jesse Owens, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos in track; Arthur Ashe in tennis; and Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, and Muhammad Ali in boxing. Long after the full integration of college and professional athletics, race continues to play a major role in sports. Not long ago, sportswriters and sportscasters ignored racial issues. They now contribute to the publicandrsquo;s evolving racial attitudes on issues both on and off the field, ranging from integration to self-determination to masculinity.
From Jack Johnson to LeBron James examines the intersection of sports, race, and the media in the twentieth century and beyond. The essays are linked by a number of questions, including: How did the black and white media differ in content and context in their reporting of these stories? How did the media acknowledge race in their stories? Did the media recognize these stories as historically significant? Considering how media coverage has evolved over the years, the essays begin with the racially charged reporting of Jack Johnsonandrsquo;s reign as heavyweight champion and carry up to the present, covering the media narratives surrounding the Michael Vick dogfighting case in a supposedly post-racial era and the mediaandrsquo;s handling of LeBron Jamesandrsquo;s announcement to leave Cleveland for Miami.
About the Author
Regna Darnell is the Distinguished University Professor of Anthropology and First Nations Studies at the University of Western Ontario. She is the author of Invisible Genealogies: A History of Americanist Anthropology (Nebraska, 2001); coeditor of Franz Boas Papers, Volume 1: Franz Boas as Public Intellectualand#8212;Theory, Ethnography, Activism (Nebraska, 2015); and general editor of the multivolume series, the Franz Boas Papers Documentary Edition. Frederic W. Gleach is a senior lecturer of anthropology and the curator of the Anthropology Collections at Cornell University. He is the author of Powhatanand#8217;s World and Colonial Virginia: A Conflict of Cultures (Nebraska, 1997).
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: One Nation Under Worry
1. From Shared Prosperity to the Age of Insecurity: How We Got Here
2. Forging Security in an Insecure