New Jersey Dreaming

by Ortner, Sherry B.

• ISBN13: 9780822335986
• ISBN10: 0822335980
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-09-15
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

Pioneering anthropologist Sherry B. Ortner is renowned for her work on the Sherpas of Nepal. Now she turns her attention homeward to examine how social class is lived in the United States and, specifically, within her own peer group. InNew Jersey Dreaming,Ortner returns to her Newark roots to present an in-depth look at Weequahic High School's Class of 1958, of which she was a member. She explores her classmatesrs" recollected experiences of the neighborhood and the high school, also written about in the novels of Philip Roth, Weequahic High Schoolrs"s most famous alum. Ortner provides a chronicle of the journey of her classmates from the 1950s into the 1990s, following the movement of a striking number of them from modest working- and middle-class backgrounds into the wealthy upper-middle or professional/managerial class.Ortner tracked down nearly all 304 of her classmates. She interviewedabout 100 in person and spoke with most of the rest by phone, recording her classmatesrs" vivid memories of time, place, and identity. Ortner shows how social class affected peoplers"s livesin many hidden and unexamined ways. She also demonstrates that the Class of ls"58rs"s extreme upward mobility must be understood in relation to the major identity movements of the twentieth century-the campaign against anti-Semitism, the Civil Rights movement, and feminism.A multisited study combining field research with an interdisciplinary analytical framework,New Jersey Dreamingis a masterly integration of developments at the vanguard of contemporary anthropology. Engaging excerpts from Ortner's field notes are interspersed throughout the book. Whether recording the difficulties and pleasures of studying one's own peer group, the cultures of driving in different parts of the country, or the contrasting experiences of appointment-making in Los Angeles and New York, they provide a rare glimpse into the actual doing of ethnographic research.

Author Biography

Sherry B. Ortner is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Map	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Letter to the Class of '58	xv
1. Introduction	1	(26)
A Genealogy of the Present
The Class of '58 and the Question of Class
The Research
The Native Ethnographer
Project Journal 1: Getting Started
THE MAKING OF THE CLASS OF '58
2. Reading Class	27	(24)
Families and Class
Behind Closed Doors
Hiding in Plain Sight
Project Journal 2: Florida
3. Drawing Boundaries	51	(17)
To Melt or Not?
The Ethnic Story
The Class Story
Project Journal 3: Los Angeles
4. Dealing with Boundaries	68	(22)
The Others
Overt Racism
Race and Ethnic Relations at Weequahic
Internalizing Limits
Survival Strategies
Project Journal 4: New Jersey
5. American High Schools	90	(20)
Memories and Categories
Deconstructing High School
High School Types across Time and Space
Permutations of the Structure
Project Journals: New York
6. Weequahic	110	(31)
The Top of the Table: High-Capital Kids and Popularity
The Lower Half of the Table: Low-Capital Kids and Resistance
Identities I: The Wildness of the Tame
Identities II: The Tameness of the Wild
Project Journal 6: New Jersey
7. Tracks	141	(28)
Weequahic qua School
College Prep?
Cultural Capital
College as a Cultural System
Gender Tracks
Project Journal 7: New Jersey
WHAT THE CLASS OF '58 MADE
8. Counterlives	169	(18)
Earlier Causes
The Other Fifties
The Sixties
Project Journal 8: New Jersey
9. Money	187	(26)
Success
Upward Mobility
The Success of Jewish Men
High-Capital Jewish Boys
Downward Mobility
Low-Capital Jewish Boys
Mobility, Agency, and History
Project Journal: Children of the Class of 58, New Jersey
10. Happiness	213	(25)
Zero College
Success II: Happiness
Project Journal 10: Children of the Class of '58 (LA and Other Far-flung Places, Including New Jersey)
11. Liberation	238	(24)
Women and Higher Education
Class of '58 Women and the Feminist Movement
Divorce
Careers
Succeeding in Nontraditional Careers
Project Journal 11: Endgame
12. Late Capitalism	262	(17)
The Class of 58 and the Making of Late Capitalism
The Growth of the PMC
Race Again
Appendix 1. Finding People, by Judy Epstein Rothbard	279	(3)
Appendix 2. In Memoriam	282	(1)
Appendix 3. Lost Classmates	283	(1)
Appendix 4. The Class of '58 Today	284	(11)
Notes	295	(18)
Works Cited	313	(18)
Index	331