America at Risk

Robert Perrucci is professor of sociology at Purdue University. He has served as president of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, associate editor of the American Sociological Review, and editor of the American Sociologist, Social Problems, and Contemporary Sociology. In 2005 he received the Lee Founders Career Achievement Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems. Carolyn C. Perrucci is professor of sociology at Purdue University. She has co-authored or co-edited three books: Marriage and the Family: A Critical Analysis and Proposals for Change, Women in Scientific and Engineering Professions, and Plant Closings: International Context and Social Costs. She has contributed to numerous journals, including: American Sociological Review, International Journal of the Humanities, Journal of Marriage and the Family, Social Problems, Sociology and Social Research, Sociology of Education, and The Sociological Quarterly.

• Table of ContentsChapter 1. Diagnosis: How the New Economy has Eroded Hope, Trust, and CaringChapter 2. Job Loss and Declining WagesChapter 3. The American Dream is FadingChapter 4. Confidence in InstitutionsChapter 5. Identity, Grievance, and TrustChapter 6. Work, Family, and CaringChapter 7. Forgotten Americans: The Poor, Homeless, Aged, and IncarceratedChapter 8. RemediesNotes

America at Risk is the culmination of two lifetimes of rigorous research and nuanced thought about the multiplex crises facing the United States today. As Perrucci and Perrucci fit together the jigsaw pieces of the socio-economic devastation we are now facing, a portrait emerges of the policies that set in motion the fast-acting processes that have robbed our society of its economic vitality. In developing this portrait they direct our attention to perhaps the most dire consequence of this decay—the severe erosion of hope, trust, and caring at the ground level, among our ordinary citizens."