America at Risk

The Crisis of Hope, Trust, and Caring

Robert Perrucci, Carolyn C. Perrucci

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
• Year: 2009
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9798216334972
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Cultural & Social Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

In America at Risk: The Crisis of Hope, Trust, and Caring, Robert Perrucci and Carolyn C. Perrucci identify the broad economic and technological changes that have led to the loss of high wage jobs, declining opportunity, and increased income and wealth inequality. These changes have altered the way that Americans think about themselves, their future, and the lives of their children and neighbors. Focusing on the erosion of trust, hope, and caring between and among Americans and their social institutions, the authors confront the challenge by proposing policies that will build hope (through jobs and wages) in order to promote greater trust of institutions and more caring for the less fortunate.

Examining data from the past thirty-year period, Perrucci and Perrucci apply a critical sociological lens to view the dominant economic, political, and cultural institutions that have shaped the main social problems facing Americans. They challenge Americans to act on behalf of their individual and collective interests by becoming informed and involved in developing new solutions to improve their lives.

Table of contents

• America at Risk
• Contents
• Preface: Why We Wrote This Book
• Chapter 01: Diagnosis: How the New Economy Has Eroded Hope, Trust, and Caring
• Chapter 02: Job Loss and Declining Wages
• Chapter 03: The American Dream Is Fading
• Chapter 04: Confidence in Institutions
• Chapter 05: Identity, Grievance, and Trust
• Chapter 06: Work, Family, and Caring
• Chapter 07: Forgotten Americans: The Poor, Homeless, Aged, and Incarcerated
• Chapter 08: Confronting the Crisis
• Notes
• Index
• About the Authors