Crisis in American Institutions

by Skolnick, Jerome H.; Currie, Elliott

• ISBN13: 9780321047007
• ISBN10: 0321047001
• Edition: 11th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-02-01
• Publisher: Pearson College Div

Summary

Crisis in American Institutions provides students with an array of engaging articles on important topics. Consistently introducing framing material, an analytical introductory chapter emphasizes the role of institutions, while concise chapter openers help introduce specific topics. Authors chose articles that reflect America's social problems and encourage students to think seriously about them. A proven winner with faculty and students alike, this new edition stands poised to continue its record of popularity in social problems.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Introduction: Approaches to Social Problems	1	(16)
SYSTEMIC PROBLEMS
PART ONE Corporate Power	17	(46)
Getting Corporations off the Public Dole	21	(7)
Janice Shields
Smoke Screen	28	(9)
Philip J. Hilts
The Selling of Olestra	37	(15)
Marion Nestle
The Shame of Our Nursing Homes	52	(11)
Eric Bates
PART TWO Economic Crisis	63	(42)
Losing Out to Mexico	65	(7)
Donald L. Barlett
James B. Steele
Nickel-and-Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America	72	(12)
Barbara Ehrenreich
The Company as Family, No More	84	(10)
N.R. Kleinfield
The Limits of Markets	94	(11)
Robert Kuttner
PART THREE Inequality	105	(42)
Recent Trends in the Size Distribution of Household Wealth	107	(11)
Edward N. Wolff
Doing Poorly: The Real Income of American Children in a Comparative perspective	118	(8)
Lee Rainwater
Timothy M. Smeeding
Day by Day: The Lives of Homeless Women	126	(9)
Elliot Liebow
The Underclass Label	135	(12)
Herbert J. Gans
PART FOUR Racism	147	(46)
American Apartheid	151	(6)
Douglas S. Massey
Nancy A. Denton
Measuring Employment Discrimination	157	(12)
Marc Bendick Jr.
Charles W. Jackson
Victor A. Reinoso
The Color of Suspicion	169	(16)
Jeffrey Goldberg
Asian Americans: The Myth of the Model Minority	185	(8)
Ronald Takaki
PART FIVE Sexism	193	(42)
The Tactics and Strategies of Men Who Batter	195	(15)
James Ptacek
Learning Silence	210	(8)
Peggy Orenstein
Lessons and Challenges of Becoming Gentlemen	218	(17)
Lani Guinier
INSTITUTIONS IN CRISIS
PART SIX The Family	235	(26)
Families on the Fault Line	237	(7)
Lillian B. Rubin
Time for Parenting	244	(8)
Sheila B. Kamerman
Alfred J. Kahn
Decent and Street Families	252	(9)
Elijah Anderson
PART SEVEN The Environment	261	(22)
Why We Have Failed	263	(4)
Barry Commoner
Environmental Racism	267	(8)
Robert D. Bullard
The Heat Is On	275	(8)
Ross Gelbspan
PART EIGHT The Workplace	283	(34)
How Labor Fares in Advanced Economies	285	(8)
Richard B. Freeman
The Forgotten Americans	293	(8)
John E. Schwarz
Thomas J. Volgy
The Political Economy and Urban Racial Tensions	301	(16)
William Julius Wilson
PART NINE Health and Welfare	317	(40)
The Medically Uninsured: Will They Always Be With Us?	321	(7)
Steven A. Schroeder
Universal Health Care: What the United States Can Learn from the Canadian Experience	328	(12)
Pat Armstrong
Hugh Armstrong
Claudia Fegan
The Return of Infectious Disease	340	(8)
Laurie Garrett
So How Did I Get Here? Growing Up on Welfare	348	(9)
Rosemary L. Bray
PART TEN The Schools	357	(30)
Life on the Mississippi: East St. Louis, Illinois	359	(8)
Jonathan Kozol
The Myth of Public School Costs	367	(6)
David C. Berliner
Bruce J. Biddle
The Great School Sell-Off	373	(9)
Peter Schrag
Reading, Writing, and...Buying?	382	(5)
Consumer Reports
PART ELEVEN Crime and Justice	387
The Myth of Leniency	389
Elliott Currie
Wild Pitch: ``Three Strikes, You're Out'' and Other Bad Calls on Crime	399
Jerome H. Skolnick
John J. Dilulio Jr.
Young Black Americans and the Criminal Justice System	417
Marc Mauer
Tracy Huling
Workaday World, Crack Economy	425
Philippe Bourgois