Small-Town America : : Finding Community, Shaping the Future / / Robert Wuthnow.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Wuthnow, Robert,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2013]; ©2013
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Edition: Course Book
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (520 p.) :; 40 line illus. 11 maps.

More than thirty million Americans live in small, out-of-the-way places. Many of them could have joined the vast majority of Americans who live in cities and suburbs. They could live closer to more lucrative careers and convenient shopping, a wider range of educational opportunities, and more robust health care. But they have opted to live differently. In Small-Town America, we meet factory workers, shop owners, retirees, teachers, clergy, and mayors--residents who show neighborliness in small ways, but who also worry about everything from school closings and their children's futures to the ups and downs of the local economy. Drawing on more than seven hundred in-depth interviews in hundreds of towns across America and three decades of census data, Robert Wuthnow shows the fragility of community in small towns. He covers a host of topics, including the symbols and rituals of small-town life, the roles of formal and informal leaders, the social role of religious congregations, the perception of moral and economic decline, and the myriad ways residents in small towns make sense of their own lives. Wuthnow also tackles difficult issues such as class and race, abortion, homosexuality, and substance abuse. Small-Town America paints a rich panorama of individuals who reside in small communities, finding that, for many people, living in a small town is an important part of self-identity.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Profiles -- Preface -- 1- Introduction -- 2- You Have to Deal with Everybody: The Inhabitants of Small Towns -- 3- Going to Be Buried Right Here: How Residents View Their Towns -- 4- Community Spirit: Small-Town Identities That Bind -- 5- The Frog Pond: Making Sense of Work and Money -- 6- Leadership: Earning Respect, Improving the Community -- 7- Habits of Faith: The Social Role of Small-Town Congregations -- 8- Contentious Issues: The Moral Sentiments of Community Life -- 9- Washington Is Broken: Politics and the New Populism -- 10- Keep Your Doors Open: Shaping the Future -- 11- Concluding Reflections: Community in Small Towns -- Afterword -- Methodology -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index