American Idle

ANNETTE NIEROBISZ is a professor of sociology and the Ada M. Harrison Distinguished Teaching Professor of the Social Sciences at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. This is her first book.DANA SAWCHUK is a professor of sociology at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada. She is the author of The Costa Rican Catholic Church, Social Justice, and the Rights of Workers, 1979–1996.

• 1 “Broke, Unemployed, Downsized Again”2 Hard Falls and Soft Landings3 Generations at Work4 In God We Trust5 “Here’s Where I Am, Here’s Where I’ll Stay”6 Silver Linings and Positive Thinking7 Where Are They Now? And What Can We Do?Appendix A Studying Late Career Job Loss in the “Land of 10,000 Lakes”Appendix B Tables 1 and 2AcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex1 “Broke, Unemployed, Downsized Again” 12 Hard Falls and Soft Landings 133 Generations at Work 284 In God We Trust 465 “Here’sWhere I Am, Here’sWhere I’ll Stay” 646 Silver Linings and Positive Thinking 827 Where Are They Now? And What Can We Do? 98Appendix A: Studying Late-CareerJob Lossin the Land of 10,000 Lakes 117Appendix B: Tables127Acknowledgments133Notes 137Bibliography 165Index 000

"American Idle focuses on an underexamined, yet critical, group of the unemployed: those later in life. It’s engagingly written and provides important insights into later-life unemployment. The authors’ findings are all elegant and conceptually rich contributions to our understanding of the unemployment process for older Americans." - Sarah Damaske (author of The Tolls of Uncertainty: How Privilege and the Guilt Gap Shape Unemployment in America) "American Idle's use of a life course approach to examine older adults' unemployment experiences is unique and fills a gap in the unemployment literature. The topic is timely, given the graying of the U.S. population, and the writing is engaging."- Dawn Norris (author of Job Loss, Identity, and Mental Health (Rutgers University Press))