Overview
An "energetic," "provocative," and "much-needed" investigation of the root causes of the epidemic of drug abuse, violence, and despair among middle-class American teenagers (Los Angeles Times) In this groundbreaking book, acclaimed sociologist and Pulitzer Prize finalist Elliott Currie draws on years of interviews to offer a profound investigation of what has gone wrong for so many "mainstream" American adolescents. Rejecting such predictable answers as TV violence, permissiveness, and inherent evil, Currie links this crisis to a pervasive "culture of exclusion" fostered by a society in which medications trump guidance and a punitive "zero tolerance" approach to adolescent misbehavior has become the norm. Broadening his inquiry, he dissects the changes in middle-class life that stratify the world into "winners" and "losers," imposing an extraordinarily harsh culture--and not just on kids. Vivid, compelling, and deeply empathetic, The Road to Whatever is a stark indictment of a society that has lost the will--or the capacity--to care.
- | Author: Elliott Currie
- | Publisher: Picador USA
- | Publication Date: Dec 27, 2005
- | Number of Pages: 320 pages
- | Binding: Paperback or Softback
- | ISBN-10: 0805080007
- | ISBN-13: 9780805080001
