American Nightmares: Social Problems In An Anxious World
by Joel Best /
2018 / English / PDF
1.4 MB Download
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 Dreamto graduate from college, own a home, work toward early retirementrecent generations have been told that the next generation will not be able to achieve these goals, that things are gettingor are on the verge of gettingworse. 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 cant bank on our retirement plans. And our homesstill the largest chunk of most peoples net worthmay 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 sociologys marginalization in the public square, Best sheds light on how social problemsand our anxiety about themare socially constructed.
