Race and Ethnicity in America examines patterns and trends in racial and ethnic inequality over recent decades. John Iceland shows how color lines have generally softened over time in the United States but deep-seated inequalities remain—generally, blacks, American Indians, and some Hispanics fare less well than others. Among these groups, the underlying causes of the disadvantages vary, ranging from the legacy of racism, current discr ...
For decades, political observers and pundits have characterized the Islamic Republic of Iran as an ideologically rigid state on the verge of collapse, exclusively connected to a narrow social base. In <I>A Social Revolution</I>, Kevan Harris convincingly demonstrates how they are wrong. Previous studies ignore the forceful consequences of three decades of social change following the 1979 revolution. Today, ...
“We have fun and we enjoy each other’s company, so why shouldn’t we just move in together?”—Lauren, from <I>Cohabitation Nation</I><BR />  <BR /> Living together is a typical romantic rite of passage in the United States today. In fact, census data shows a 37 percent increase in couples who choose to commit to and live with one another, forgoing ...
“My world seems upside down. I have grown up but I feel like I’m moving backward. And I can’t do anything about it.” –Esperanza Over two million of the nation’s eleven million undocumented immigrants have lived in the United States since childhood. Due to a broken immigration system, they grow up to uncertain futures. In Lives in Limbo, Roberto G. Gonzales introduces us to two groups: t ...
They Leave Their Kidneys in the Fields takes the reader on an ethnographic tour of the melon and corn harvesting fields of California’s Central Valley to understand why farmworkers suffer heatstroke and chronic illness at rates higher than workers in any other industry. Through captivating accounts of the daily lives of a core group of farmworkers over nearly a decade, Sarah Bronwen Horton documents in startling detail how a t ...
What can we learn about nationalism by looking at a country’s cultural institutions? How do the history and culture of particular cities help explain how museums represent diversity? <I>Artifacts and Allegiances</I> takes us around the world to tell the compelling story of how museums today are making sense of immigration and globalization. Based on firsthand conversations with museum directors, curators, and policymakers; descriptio ...
Beginning in the late 1950s political leaders in Venezuela built what they celebrated as Latin America’s most stable democracy. But outside the staid halls of power, in the gritty barrios of a rapidly urbanizing country, another politics was rising—unruly, contentious, and clamoring for inclusion.<BR /><BR /> Based on years of archival and ethnographic research in Venezuela’s largest public housing community, <I>Barrio Rising&l ...
The 1980s saw the peak of a moral panic over fantasy role-playing games such as <I>Dungeons and Dragons.</I> A coalition of moral entrepreneurs that included representatives from the Christian Right, the field of psychology, and law enforcement claimed that these games were not only psychologically dangerous but an occult religion masquerading as a game. <I>Dangerous Games </I>explores both the history and the sociologica ...
In 2013, New York City launched a public education campaign with posters of frowning or crying children saying such things as «I’m twice as likely not to graduate high school because you had me as a teen» and «Honestly, Mom, chances are he won’t stay with you.» Campaigns like this support a public narrative that portrays teen mothers as threatening the moral order, bankrupting state coffers, and causing high rates of poverty, incarceration, and ...
