American nightmares : social problems in an anxious world / Joel Best.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Best, Joel, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Anxiety--Social aspects--United States.

Anxiety.

Anxiety--Social aspects.

United States--Social conditions.

United States.

Social conditions.

Physical Description:

xxiv, 227 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2018]

Summary:

"In an accessible and droll style, best-selling author Joel Best shines a light on how we navigate these anxious, insecure social times. While most of us still strive for the American Dream--to graduate from college, own a home, work toward early retirement--recent generations have been told that the next generation will not be able to achieve these goals, that things are getting--or are on the verge of getting--worse. In American Nightmares, Best addresses the apprehension that we face every day as we are bombarded with threats that the social institutions we count on are imperiled. Our schools are failing to teach our kids. Healthcare may soon be harder to obtain. We can't bank on our retirement plans. And our homes--still the largest chunk of most people's net worth--may lose much of their value. Our very way of life is being threatened! Or is it? With a steady voice and keen focus, Best examines how a culture develops fears and fantasies and how these visions are created and recreated in every generation. By dismantling current ideas about the future, collective memory, and sociology's marginalization in the public square, Best sheds light on how social problems--and our anxiety about them--are socially constructed"--Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Popular hazards or, how we insist similar social problems are different

American nightmares or, why sociologists hate the American dream / written with David Schweingruber

Evaluating predictions or, how to compare the Maya calendar, Social Security, and climate change

Future talk or, how slippery slopes shape concern

Memories as problems or, how to reconsider Confederate flags and other symbols of the past /written with Lawrence T. Nichols

Economicization or, why economists get more respect than sociologists

Afterword : the future of American nightmares.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Best, Joel. American nightmares.

ISBN:

9780520296343

0520296346

9780520296350

0520296354

OCLC:

981118091