Joel Best: 10 books
American Nightmares
Social Problems in an Anxious World
Language: English
Release Date: January 23, 2018
In an accessible and droll style, well-known sociologist Joel Best shines a light on how we navigate these anxious, insecure social times. While most of us still strive for the American Dream—to graduate from college, own a home, work toward early retirement—recent generations have been told...
Kids Gone Wild
From Rainbow Parties to Sexting, Understanding the Hype Over Teen Sex
Language: English
Release Date: August 29, 2014
The myths and truths of teen's sexual behavior.
Winner of the 2015 Brian McConnell Book Award presented by the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research
To hear mainstream media sources tell it, the sex
lives of modern teenagers outpace even the smuttiest of cable television shows.
Teen...
Everyone's a Winner
Life in Our Congratulatory Culture
Language: English
Release Date: March 7, 2011
Every kindergarten soccer player gets a trophy. Many high schools name dozens of seniors as valedictorians—of the same class. Cars sport bumper stickers that read "USA—Number 1." Prizes proliferate in every corner of American society, and excellence is trumpeted with ratings that range...
Damned Lies and Statistics
Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists
Language: English
Release Date: August 7, 2012
Here, by popular demand, is the updated edition to Joel Best's classic guide to understanding how numbers can confuse us. In his new afterword, Best uses examples from recent policy debates to reflect on the challenges to improving statistical literacy. Since its publication ten years ago, Damned...
Stat-Spotting
A Field Guide to Identifying Dubious Data
Language: English
Release Date: September 14, 2013
Does a young person commit suicide every thirteen minutes in the United States? Are four million women really battered to death by their husbands or boyfriends each year? Is methamphetamine our number one drug problem today? Alarming statistics bombard our daily lives, appearing in the news, on the...
The Stupidity Epidemic
Worrying About Students, Schools, and America’s Future
Language: English
Release Date: August 6, 2012
Critics often warn that American schools are failing, and that our students are ill-prepared for the challenges the future holds, and may even be "the dumbest generation." We can think of these claims as warning about a Stupidity Epidemic. This essay begins by tracing the history of the...
The Student Loan Mess
How Good Intentions Created a Trillion-Dollar Problem
Language: English
Release Date: May 2, 2014
This illuminating investigation uncovers the full dimensions of the student loan disaster. A father and son team—one a best-selling sociologist, the other a former banker and current quantitative researcher—probes how we’ve reached the point at which student loan debt—now exceeding $1 trillion...
by Joel Best
Language: English
Release Date: September 29, 2017
Language: English
Release Date: September 29, 2017
Although there is growing concern over Satanism as a threat to American life, the topic has received surprisingly little serious attention. Recognizing this, the editors of this volume have selected papers from a wide variety of disciplines, broadly covering contemporary aspects of Satanism from the...
Images of Issues
Typifying Contemporary Social Problems
Language: English
Release Date: September 29, 2017
Constructionist theory describes and analyzes social problems as emerging through the efforts of claimsmakers who bring issues to public attention. By typifying a problem and characterizing it as a particular sort, claimsmakers can shape policymaking and public response to the problem. Th is new edition...
Troubling Children
Studies of Children and Social Problems
Language: English
Release Date: September 8, 2017
First Published in 2017. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an Informa company.