The Culture of Inequality

By Michael Lewis

Book Overview

Why do America's wars against poverty turn out to be wards against the poor? Why does a nation so committed to fighting crime show such a bad record of combatting it and so morbid a fascination with it? Why is American racism so deeply rooted?

These and other questions are answered in this milestone study. Its central thesis is that the national faith in individual initiative and free opportunity has become a breeding ground for guilt about our own limited successes and prejudice against all who exhibit signs of failure.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870238574
• ISBN13: 9780870238574
• Release Date: May 1993
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.1"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A timeless understanding of inequalities

Lewis, in the Second Edition of the Culture of Inequality, makes the reader uncomfortable: can I, a well intentioned person, help ease the consequences of persistent, harmful inequalities in the US? A careful reading of this rich, deep description of "our town" will most likely generate a sense of futility -- the type that makes it even more important to look for all the ways that policy makers, teachers, parents, or anyone with influence can work to avoid contributing to the reproduction of inequality. No town, no city, no social institution, and no geographic area is immuned to the "culture" of inquality. Moreover, individuals and groups engage in everyday behaviors, and even everyday thinking, that help to maintain the culture of inequality.Charles Tilly(1998)in Durable Inequality gives the reader a detailed and complex theory to explain persistent social inequalities across time, nations, and cultures. Michael Lewis puts Tilly's theory into action. He brings it to real life, using examples we all recognize. In a study of one ordinary place, Professor Lewis makes us wish that his study is, or could be dated. It is such a shame to realize that it isn't.JoAnn Miller Associate Professor of Sociology Purdue University