Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis

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		Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis
		Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis

A New York Times bestseller and “a passionate, urgent” (The New Yorker) examination of the growing inequality gap from the bestselling author of Bowling Alone: why fewer Americans today have the opportunity for upward mobility.

Central to the very idea of America is the principle that we are a nation of opportunity. But over the last quarter century we have seen a disturbing “opportunity gap” emerge. We Americans have always believed that those who have talent and try hard will succeed, but this central tenet of the American Dream seems no longer true or at the least, much less true than it was.

In Our Kids, Robert Putnam offers a personal and authoritative look at this new American crisis, beginning with the example of his high school class of 1959 in Port Clinton, Ohio. The vast majority of those students went on to lives better than those of their parents. But their children and grandchildren have faced diminishing prospects. Putnam tells the tale of lessening opportunity through poignant life stories of rich, middle class, and poor kids from cities and suburbs across the country, brilliantly blended with the latest social-science research.

“A truly masterful volume” (Financial Times), Our Kids provides a disturbing account of the American dream that is “thoughtful and persuasive” (The Economist). Our Kids offers a rare combination of individual testimony and rigorous evidence: “No one can finish this book and feel complacent about equal opportunity” (The New York Times Book Review).

网友对Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis的评论

Having graduated High School in the mid-fifties also; I was stunned to thumb through this catalog of challenges and barriers children face today. I had no idea! And to make things worse, I thought I was paying attention!

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS THAT I READ THIS YEAR AND IN FACT HAVE GIVEN IT TO MY FRIENDS WHO ENJOYED IT IMMENSELY. IF YOU HAVE ANY INTEREST IN EDUCATION, ESPECIALLY FOR INNNER CITY CHILDREN AND THE PROBLEMS AND ADVERSITY THAT THEY AND THEIR FAMILIES FACE THIS IS A MUST READ. PUTNAM DID A VERY THOROUGH JOB COLLECTING DATA AND INTERVIEWING AND THE RESULTS ARE A SOLID CASE FOR WHAT IS HAPPENING TO OUR UNDERPRIVILEGED CHILDREN AND THE EFFORTS BEING MADE TO CHANGE THE DYNAMICS OF POVERTY. SPEND THE MONEY EARLIER AND SMARTER OR KEEP BUILDING MORE PRISONS. THE FORMER IS LESS COSTLY AND FAR MORE PRODUCTIVE FOR SOCIETY, OUR ECONOMY AND OUR FAMILY STRUCTURE

Putnam sounded the alarm with his pioneering book, Bowling alone. Between then and now we have seen that multi-culturalism hasn't, as was expected, brought people closer together but has led to greater fragmentation with more withdrawal and clustering around narrower factors. This book deals with another piece of that fragmentation. It deals with what happens, in great, and sometimes tiring detail, of the lives of those with education and those without, those who achieve a modicum of wealth and those who struggle to make ends meet and never achieve much. This is a book about the children of these two groups. Putnam shows in fine detail how the lives of those children diverge and some of the consequences. He unlike many others does not blame the schools for some of these consequences but he does point out that they may well be a big part of the solution to some of the problems. The big problem that came through for me is the extreme difficulty that children trapped in poverty and dysfunctional families of getting ahead. There are ways to get through and out but man don't make it.

I would recommend reading Charles Murray to see his analysis of essential the same problem, the loss of the American Dream of getting ahead and having great opportunities to succeed.

It is not often that one runs across a book that has the capacity of moving a generation. I have been involved with eldercare and more specifically with the active aging movement for about 10 years now. During this time, work has been done on the importance of fitness to achieve a state of active aging -- physical, mental, social, financial, nutritional and the like. But one can ask, active aging for what purpose? This book provides the boomer generation with that raison d'etre.

"Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis" is a great read, - great sociology effectively interwoven with touching personal stories of the long term impact of inequality of opportunity. This is a must read" for the boomer generation entering retirement and often at a loss regarding what to do with their 20-30 remaining productive retirement years. I think that the message from Dr. Robert Putnam can help excite a generation to create a reason to hope for our kids and their kids for generations to come.

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