American Misfits and the Making of Middle-Class Respectability

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How American respectability has been built by maligning those who don't make the grade How 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

Reviews

"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

Author Bio

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 Americas Heartland and Rough Country: How Texas Became Americas Most Powerful Bible-Belt State (both Princeton).