The way we live, work, and die-alone and with other Americans-have so many hidden layers that we might as well say that there are two Americas: one we think we know and the other virtually unknown to us. Such a thought is compelling enough to motivate a sociologist to start writing down what he thinks about the hidden America.
Then, what emerges from this effort is a picture of America that is at once so familiar and so alien. It is the alien part of America that troubles us, that scares us, and that pushes us to escape into louder, more colorful, and more pleasant unreality. As our escapism becomes more urgent each day, so does its testimony to the emptiness and loneliness of our solitary existence. Huer discusses this alien part of America in American Paradise.
Autorentext
Jon Huer received his Ph.D. from UCLA in 1975 and is professor of sociology at the University of Maryland University College. He has written a dozen books of social criticism, including The Wages of Sin,Tenure for Socrates, and also The Dead End, which TIME Magazine's Lance Morrow called "an important and often brilliant book."
Inhalt
Chapter 1 Introduction. Welcome to American Paradise
Chapter 2 Chapter 1. The Great American Temptation
Chapter 3 Chapter 2. The Axis of Evil Temptation
Chapter 4 Chapter 3. Merchants of Death
Chapter 5 Chapter 4. Paradise Up Close
Chapter 6 Chapter 5. What America Has Become
Chapter 7 Chapter 6. Life, Liberty, and Happiness
Chapter 8 Chapter 7. Freedom's Progress
Chapter 9 Chapter 8. The Incredibly Shrinking Nation
Chapter 10 Chapter 9. Lifestyle and Other Oddities
Chapter 11 Chapter 10. Individualism and Supreme Justice
Chapter 12 Chapter 11. The Americanization of Love
Chapter 13 Chapter 12. Paradise Found
Chapter 14 Chapter 13. The Perfect State
Chapter 15 Chapter 14. A Phantom Nation
Chapter 16 Chapter 15. Weapons of Mass Distraction
Chapter 17 Chapter 16. All That Glitters
Chapter 18 Chapter 17. More Economic Oddities
Chapter 19 Chapter 18. What Could Have Been
Chapter 20 Chapter 19. Paradise Lost, Again
Chapter 21 Chapter 20. Living and Dying by the Sword
Chapter 22 Bibliography