Driving after Class
eBook - PDF

Driving after Class

Anxious Times in an American Suburb

  1. 312 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Driving after Class

Anxious Times in an American Suburb

About this book

A paradoxical situation emerged at the turn of the twenty-first century: the dramatic upscaling of the suburban American dream even as the possibilities for achieving and maintaining it diminished. Having fled to the suburbs in search of affordable homes, open space, and better schools, city-raised parents found their modest homes eclipsed by McMansions, local schools and roads overburdened and underfunded, and their ability to keep up with the pressures of extravagant consumerism increasingly tenuous. How do class anxieties play out amid such disconcerting cultural, political, and economic changes? In this incisive ethnography set in a New Jersey suburb outside New York City, Rachel Heiman takes us into people's homes; their community meetings, where they debate security gates and school redistricting; and even their cars, to offer an intimate view of the tensions and uncertainties of being middle class at that time.

With a gift for bringing to life the everyday workings of class in the lives of children, youth, and their parents, Heiman offers an illuminating look at the contemporary complexities of class rooted in racialized lives, hyperconsumption, and neoliberal citizenship. She argues convincingly that to understand our current economic situation we need to attend to the subtle but forceful formation of sensibilities, spaces, and habits that durably motivate people and shape their actions and outlooks. "Rugged entitlement" is Heiman's name for the middle class's sense of entitlement to a way of life that is increasingly untenable and that is accompanied by an anxious feeling that they must vigilantly pursue their own interests to maintain and further their class position. Driving after Class is a model of fine-grained ethnography that shows how families try to make sense of who they are and where they are going in a highly competitive and uncertain time.

Frequently asked questions

Yes, you can cancel anytime from the Subscription tab in your account settings on the Perlego website. Your subscription will stay active until the end of your current billing period. Learn how to cancel your subscription.
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
Perlego offers two plans: Essential and Complete
  • Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
  • Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Both plans are available with monthly, semester, or annual billing cycles.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes! You can use the Perlego app on both iOS or Android devices to read anytime, anywhere — even offline. Perfect for commutes or when you’re on the go.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Driving after Class by Rachel Heiman in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Cultural & Social Anthropology. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
70
Tarragon 
Hills, 
a 
brand-new 
upscale 
subdivision 
of 
twenty-three 
custom 
homes 
(“No 
Two 
Homes 
Alike!” 
proclaimed 
the 
sales 
billboard) 
was 
con-
structed 
in 
Danboro 
during 
the 
time 
of 
my 
eldwork. 
(See 
gure 
4.) 
Tarragon 
Hills 
was 
typical 
of 
the 
influx 
during 
those 
years 
of 
huge 
homes, 
which 
some 
disdainfully 
refer 
to 
as 
“McMansions.”
1
As 
one 
father 
described 
it 
at 
the 
time, 
“Houses 
looked 
like 
they 
were 
dropping 
from 
the 
sky!” 
Often 
built 
adjacent 
to 
older 
subdivisions 
of 
moderately 
sized 
colonial-style 
homes, 
like 
those 
in 
which 
Stu, 
Linda, 
and 
Lauren, 
and 
Nancy, 
Eric, 
and 
Danielle 
live, 
these 
new 
houses 
dwarfed 
their 
neighbors 
and 
produced 
jar-
ring 
juxtapositions, 
mirroring 
the 
upscaling 
of 
the 
suburban 
American 
dream 
across 
the 
country.
2
When 
compounded 
with 
increasing 
concerns 
about 
overcrowding—triggered 
by 
never-ending 
tra
c, 
overflowing 
pub-
lic 
schools, 
and 
diminishing 
open 
space—these 
architectural 
shifts 
pro-
voked 
class 
anxieties 
and 
roused 
uncertainties 
about 
the 
scal 
and 
discur-
sive 
boundaries 
of 
inclusion 
and 
exclusion 
in 
the 
imagined 
future 
of 
the 
town. 
Like 
gentrication 
in 
urban 
areas, 
changes 
in 
the 
grandeur 
of 
sub-
urban 
housing 
reflect 
a 
transformation 
of 
the 
class 
makeup 
of 
a 
town 
and 
reveal 
shifts 
in 
the 
larger 
class 
structure, 
the 
structuring 
of 
people’s 
social 
locations, 
and 
moral 
discourses 
on 
private 
property.
3 
Gate 
Expectations

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Driving after Class
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Contents
  6. List of Illustrations
  7. Preface
  8. Acknowledgments
  9. 1. Introduction: Common Sense in Anxious Times
  10. 2. Being Post-Brooklyn
  11. 3. Gate Expectations
  12. 4. Driving after Class
  13. 5. Vehicles for Rugged Entitlement
  14. 6. From White Flight to Community Might
  15. 7. A Conclusion, or Rather, a Commencement
  16. Notes
  17. References
  18. Index