The Road to Whatever: Middle-Class Culture and the Crisis of Adolescence

by Elliott Currie

Book Overview

An "energetic," "provocative," and "much-needed" investigation of the root causes of the epidemic of drug abuse, violence, and despair among middle-class American teenagers (Los Angeles Times) In this... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805067639
• ISBN13: 9780805067637
• Release Date: February 2005
• Publisher: Metropolitan Books
• Length: 305 Pages
• Weight: 1.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

The Road to Tomorrow

I'm a composer and private music teacher, and because of my sons' involvement in it I became the accompanist and then the director for 13 years of the local boys choir, (including changed voices, up through high school). After working with "mainstream" youth for almost 40 years, I've become increasingly concerned about the effect on them of our society's (and their parents') aggressive use of "contingent worth," one of the many thorny problems Elliott Currie incisively and honestly addresses in this thoughtful book. As he puts it, "...the culture that surrounds them is one in which individuals' value--in their own eyes and those of others--is, to an unusual extent, conditional on their meeting certain narrow standards of performance. It is not sufficient to be simply a 'good kid'--or to be hardworking, courageous, or generous, all qualities that might be expected to give adolescents a firm sense that they are fundamentally worthwhile. Instead, too much rides on their ability to rank high on just a few scales of worth, which, in the American middle class, typically involve some sort of competitive achievement--outdoing others in school, sports, or whatever arena is considered most important in the struggle for status and prestige." The everyday tension between our own--and everyone else's--altruism-tenderness-creativity and our/their hatred-destuctiveness-fear rises to a peak of intensity in adolescence, but never leaves us as adults. It may be that adults who do not allow their teenagers even the slightest deviance from the "norm" are secretly afraid that "being there" with their teenagers' conflict will reignite their own fear of being able to control their own emotions and lives. Finally I know a well-researched, authoritative book to recommend to parents, with the disclaimer that I'm not suggesting blame for them, rather the influence of a "sink-or-swim" culture that pretends to base its treatment of its offspring on natural law. I wish I knew about it earlier before I retired from teaching and directing large groups. Such awareness may make it possible to find the road to a more sane and humane tomorrow.

Teenage Wasteland Captured!

I've never read a move revealing book. It follows the lives of troubled teens and really captures a complete picture of how these problems manifest and the problems in our society that feed them. If you ever wondered about how teens fall through the cracks this is a must read. Each chapter tells a story about another teen, then examines it socially to support his ideas. As someone just out of his teens, I appreciated the accuracy of his observations.

Serious account of the crisis today's teens are facing

There's a saying..."Life isn't always easy," and for many of today's youth it isn't. For many it never was. In the book, "The Road to Whatever: Middle-Class Culture & the Crisis of Adolescence," acclaimed sociologist and Pulitzer Prize finalist Elliott Curie takes a serious, hard look at the suffering that middle-class teens are enduring. Using research studies, numerous interviews, and other facts gathered during his investigation, he disclaims the myth that troubled teens are solely driven down a path of destruction due to simplistic theories such as violence on television and improper discipline techniques by parents. Elliott explains why, in this age of "tough love" and overly strict punishments, adolescents are so lost, hopeless, and troubled, and why they feel as though no one cares enough about them to help solve their problems. The book contains ways in which we as a society, can help our middle-class teenagers -- to help prevent them from dangerous behaviors and to help those who are already traveling down a road that includes violence, drug addiction, suicide, and other negative behavior. MyParenTime.com highly recommends this book to anyone who can make a difference in the life of a teenager (this includes: parents, teachers, counselors, school officials, psychiatrists, therapists, treatment centers, etc.). We must realize that troubled teens need people in society to actually take time to listen to them and to simply care about them. What they don't need are people who are going to give up on them when they are needed the most. Sounds simple enough, doesn't it?

Harshness and Heedlessness

A recipe for disaster. As Erma Bombeck once said, children need love the most when they deserve it the least. Elliott Currie writes incisively with intelligence and compassion, and brings a world of harsh realities, heedless schools and families with arbitrary punitiveness to light. He demonstrates how resilient young people can be. This book is necessary for parents, educators, and people who allocate funds for social services. Other books along the same lines: Small Criminals Among Us, by Gad Czudner, and Resiliency for Educators, by Nan Henderson and Mike Milstein

Excellent Analysis of a Real Problem

After spending many years studying history and politics, I've come to the conclusion that a strong, stable, and relatively prosperous middle-class is the key to providing a strong, stable, and relatively prosperous society and its accompanying political organization. We will always have the very wealthy and we will always have the poor. The rich and the poor, representing the two extremes on a social spectrum, must, however, be the minorities in any stable society. The middle-class represents what we ordinarily refer to as the "mainstream." It seems obvious then that the future of a stable and prosperous society must always rest with the generation coming of age and that middle-class adults, particularly those who are involved in the raising of middle-class youth, should be nurturing these younger members, preparing them to take their place as responsible adults in the larger society, thereby guaranteeing the continued stability and prosperity of that society. But, according to sociologist Elliott Currie, not all is kosher among middle-class youth in America and he provides an interesting investigation into the core causes of the epidemic of violence, drug abuse, and hopelessness among those American teenagers who are part of what is generally called "mainstream America," that is, these teenagers are true members of the middle-class and do not represent the impoverished young people of the poorer class who are generally thought to be responsible for most of the antisocial behavior in our society and who are considered to be "disadvantaged" and "alienated" from the larger society as a whole. The title of Currie's book, "The Road to Whatever," I initially found to be very curious and I wasn't quite sure what the author really meant. It didn't take long to discover why he was using that particular title. Indeed, if the current crisis among middle-class adolescents is to be marked with a single word, the word "whatever" is about as good a word as one can use. "Whatever," in the sense which seems to be used in this book, is full of meaning and embodies an expression of carelessness, heedlessness, despair, thoughtlessness, riskiness, and so on, behaviors and attitudes which are not considered desirable attributes to be fostered in our young. Too many middle-class youths in America are not on the "Road to Maturity," or the "Road to Success," or the "Road to Prosperity." They are, well, on the road to "Whatever." What, asks Currie, has brought this phenomenon about? What is going on in American culture that appears to be the catalyst for this circumstance? What are the root causes, if any? The author rejects the usual answers we hear all over the media from the pundits, partisans, and self-declared experts. Some say it is violence and sex on television that is responsible. Others claim it is the new "permissiveness" in our society which causes these young people to behave and feel as they do. Still others point to other causes and suggest solutions