American Misfits and the Making of Middle-Class Respectability

"American Misfits is filled with colorful anecdotes, lively characters, and sharp social analysis. One of America's leading sociologists, Robert Wuthnow shows that respectability is rarely about respecting others but rather about identifying others to malign for their deficiencies and offenses."--Leigh Eric Schmidt, Washington University in St. Louis
"This is an outstanding book--impressively researched, boldly argued with interdisciplinary breadth, and innovative in the way it depicts the middle-class American dream as perpetually fleeting and tenuous, marked off by day-to-day practices of the rank-and-file and prone to negotiation among those who seek to patrol the boundaries of belonging. It is also a riveting read, driven by rich description and detailed investigation of countless colorful characters who have tested those boundaries and found themselves held up as test cases of what America should and shouldn't look like, and who should and shouldn't be counted as respectable citizens."--Darren Dochuk, University of Notre Dame

About the author

Robert Wuthnow is the Gerhard R. Andlinger '52 Professor of Social Sciences at Princeton University. He is the author of many works about American culture and society, including Red State Religion: Faith and Politics in America's Heartland and Rough Country: How Texas Became America's Most Powerful Bible-Belt State (both Princeton).

Summary

How American respectability has been built by maligning those who don't make the gradeHow did Americans come to think of themselves as respectable members of the middle class? Was it just by earning a decent living? Or did it require something more? And if it did, what can we learn that may still apply?The quest for middle-class respectabil

Product details

• Authors: Robert Wuthnow
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.08.2020
• EAN: 9780691210711
• ISBN: 978-0-691-21071-1
• No. of pages: 352
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology; USA, Sociology, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology of Religion, HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, RELIGION / Comparative Religion, HISTORY / United States / General, Social and cultural history, United States of America, USA, History of the Americas, Social classes, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Social Classes & Economic Disparity, Religious issues and debates