Winner of the 2013 Distinguished Scholarly Book Award of the Labor and Labor Movements Section of the American Sociological Association

“Chris Rhomberg provides a rich example of why, in an era of emboldened corporate power, worker-community solidarity and filing legal challenges are no longer enough to win strikes and collective bargaining agreements.”
—Kate L. Bronfenbrenner, Cornell University

“In prose both accessible and dramatic, Chris Rhomberg has given us a profound and carefully detailed analysis of a landmark struggle between labor and management in the ’90s. But Professor Rhomberg’s work is not only an authoritative chronicle of the 1995 Detroit newspaper strike—one of the most important cases to come before me during my National Labor Relations Board tenure. It is also a broad, sweeping, and profound examination of the state of labor-management relations today and historically in the United States and an important discussion about the ongoing need for labor law reform. His book effectively links the changing bargaining table and its erosion to the growing inequality in our society. The Broken Table is must reading for all concerned with the changing labor landscape, Detroit, and the political-economic challenges ahead.”
—William B. Gould IV, National Labor Relations Board

“Chris Rhomberg brings to his account of this epic conflict the kind of historical understanding, sociological insight, and legal acumen that illuminates the world of work in our day. The Broken Table is essential reading for anyone who wants to grasp the profound economic and ideological ruptures that have so decimated American unions and eroded working-class living standards during the last three decades.”
—Nelson N. Lichtenstein, University of California, Santa Barbara

When the Detroit newspaper strike was settled in December 2000, it marked the end of five years of bitter and violent dispute. No fewer than six local unions, representing 2,500 employees, struck against the Detroit News, the Detroit Free Press, and their corporate owners, charging unfair labor practices. The newspapers hired permanent replacement workers and paid millions of dollars for private security and police enforcement; the unions and their supporters took their struggle to the streets by organizing a widespread circulation and advertising boycott, conducting civil disobedience, and publishing a weekly strike newspaper. In the end, unions were forced to settle contracts on management's terms, and fired strikers received no amnesty.

In The Broken Table, Chris Rhomberg sees the Detroit newspaper strike as a historic collision of two opposing forces: a system in place since the New Deal governing disputes between labor and management, and decades of increasingly aggressive corporate efforts to eliminate unions. As a consequence, one of the fundamental institutions of American labor relations—the negotiation table—has been broken, Rhomberg argues, leaving the future of the collective bargaining relationship and democratic workplace governance in question.

The Broken Table uses interview and archival research to explore the historical trajectory of this breakdown, its effect on workers' economic outlook, and the possibility of restoring democratic governance to the business-labor relationship. Emerging from the New Deal, the 1935 National Labor Relations Act protected the practice of collective bargaining and workers' rights to negotiate the terms and conditions of their employment by legally recognizing union representation. This system became central to the democratic workplace, where workers and management were collective stakeholders. But efforts to erode the legal protections of the NLRA began immediately, leading to a parallel track of anti-unionism that began to gain ascendancy in the 1980s. The Broken Table shows how the tension created by these two opposing forces came to a head after a series of key labor disputes over the preceding decades culminated in the Detroit newspaper strike. Detroit union leadership charged management with unfair labor practices after employers had unilaterally limited the unions' ability to bargain over compensation and work conditions. Rhomberg argues that, in the face of management claims of absolute authority, the strike was an attempt by unions to defend workers' rights and the institution of collective bargaining, and to stem the rising tide of post-1980s anti-unionism.

In an era when the incidence of strikes in the United States has been drastically reduced, the 1995 Detroit newspaper strike stands out as one of the largest and longest work stoppages in the past two decades. A riveting read full of sharp analysis, The Broken Table revisits the Detroit case in order to show the ways this strike signaled the new terrain in labor-management conflict. The book raises broader questions of workplace governance and accountability that affect us all.

CHRIS RHOMBERG is associate professor of sociology at Fordham University.

“Class may be less visible than gender or skin color, but it is no less consequential. Statistical studies document robust correlations between class and vital events. Facing Social Class digs into those correlations to uncover some of the ways people use and experience class distinctions in daily life and at life’s turning points. Leading scholars summarize what is known in their specialties and set the research agenda for this decade. Their fruitful collaboration as psychologists and sociologists shows that progress depends on an interdisciplinary approach to the study of mind, self, and our evermore unequal society.”
—Michael Hout, University of California, Berkeley

“A fascinating and wide-ranging collection exploring the everyday manifestations of social class. Drawing together perspectives from sociology, psychology, anthropology, linguistics, and law, this volume explores the often invisible ways that social class shapes our ideas, institutions, interactions, and identities. Susan T. Fiske and Hazel Rose Markus have brought together state-of-the-art contributions from the social sciences to reveal often overlooked dynamics in the production and reproduction of social class in America.”
—Devah Pager, Princeton University

Many Americans, holding fast to the American Dream and the promise of equal opportunity, claim that social class doesn't matter. Yet the ways we talk and dress, our interactions with authority figures, the degree of trust we place in strangers, our religious beliefs, our achievements, our senses of morality and of ourselves—all are marked by social class, a powerful factor affecting every domain of life. In Facing Social Class, social psychologists Susan Fiske and Hazel Rose Markus, and a team of sociologists, anthropologists, linguists, and legal scholars, examine the many ways we communicate our class position to others and how social class shapes our daily, face-to-face interactions—from casual exchanges to interactions at school, work, and home.

Facing Social Class exposes the contradiction between the American ideal of equal opportunity and the harsh reality of growing inequality, and it shows how this tension is reflected in cultural ideas and values, institutional practices, everyday social interactions, and psychological tendencies. Contributor Joan Williams examines cultural differences between middle- and working-class people and shows how the cultural gap between social class groups can influence everything from voting practices and political beliefs to work habits, home life, and social behaviors. In a similar vein, Annette Lareau and Jessica McCrory Calarco analyze the cultural advantages or disadvantages exhibited by different classes in institutional settings, such as those between parents and teachers. They find that middle-class parents are better able to advocate effectively for their children in school than are working-class parents, who are less likely to challenge a teacher's authority.

Michael Kraus, Michelle Rheinschmidt, and Paul Piff explore the subtle ways we signal class status in social situations. Conversational style and how close one person stands to another, for example, can influence the balance of power in a business interaction. Diana Sanchez and Julie Garcia even demonstrate that markers of low socioeconomic status such as incarceration or unemployment can influence whether individuals are categorized as white or black—a finding that underscores how race and class may work in tandem to shape advantage or disadvantage in social interactions.

The United States has one of the highest levels of income inequality and one of the lowest levels of social mobility among industrialized nations, yet many Americans continue to buy into the myth that theirs is a classless society. Facing Social Class faces the reality of how social class operates in our daily lives, why it is so pervasive, and what can be done to alleviate its effects.

SUSAN T. FISKE is Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology at Princeton University.

HAZEL ROSE MARKUS is Davis-Brack Professor in the Behavioral Sciences in the Department of Psychology, director of the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE), and director of the Mind, Culture, and Society Lab at Stanford University.

CONTRIBUTORS: Courtney Bearns, Jessica McCrory Colarco, Paul DiMaggio, Susan R. Fisk, Stephanie A. Fryberg, Julie A. Garcia, Crystal C. Hall, Michael W. Kraus, Adrie Kusserow, Annette Lareau, Peggy J. Miller, Miguel Moya, Paul K. Piff, Michelle L. Rheinschmidt, Cecilia L. Ridgeway, Ann Marie Russell, Diana T. Sanchez, Douglas E. Sperry, Nicole M. Stephens, Joan C. Williams.

“At a time of fierce debate over America’s economic future, this fresh and deeply researched book provides a welcome antidote to the complacent conventional wisdom that good jobs are gone for good. One of the nation’s leading experts on the low-wage labor market, Paul Osterman, has teamed up with one of the nation’s leading champions of low-wage workers, the late Beth Shulman, to produce a powerful, informed case for making ‘bad’ jobs better. What Osterman and Shulman show is that doing so would benefit not just low-wage workers. It would also benefit our society and our economy more broadly.”
—JACOB S. HACKER, Stanley Resor Professor of Political Science and director, Institution for Social and Policy Studies, Yale University 

“There is no more pressing question than how we insure that American workers are able to lay claim to jobs that pay well and hold the promise of economic security. Good Jobs America is a powerful, no-holds-barred effort to answer that call. Paul Osterman and his late coauthor, Beth Shulman, do not shy away from the sobering realities: even employers dedicated to the ‘high road’ often abandon those commitments, pushing wages down, violating labor laws, and outsourcing in pursuit of the lowest wage bill. Yet the authors insist we can do better than this. They call for serious union reform, the mobilization of public opinion to pressure firms to do better, and insisting that citizens return the question of good jobs to the campaign trail. There are no easy solutions, but at last we have a book that puts the options on the table. We will be debating its conclusions for a long time to come.”
—KATHERINE NEWMAN, James B. Knapp Dean of Arts and Sciences, Johns Hopkins University 

“In this timely book, Paul Osterman and Beth Shulman address an important labor-market problem, the proliferation of low-wage jobs in the United States. Their thoughtful and accessible discussion provides an overview of the reasons for the spread of low-wage jobs in recent years and evaluates some of the major actions that are needed by diverse parties—firms, governments, local organizations, unions—to transform these bad jobs into good jobs.”
—ARNE L. KALLEBERG, Kenan Distinguished Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

America confronts a jobs crisis that has two faces. The first is obvious when we read the newspapers or talk with our friends and neighbors: there are simply not enough jobs to go around. The second jobs crisis is more subtle but no less serious: far too many jobs fall below the standard that most Americans would consider decent work. A quarter of working adults are trapped in jobs that do not provide living wages, health insurance, or much hope of upward mobility. The problem spans all races and ethnic groups and includes both native-born Americans and immigrants. But Good Jobs America provides examples from industries ranging from food services and retail to manufacturing and hospitals to demonstrate that bad jobs can be made into good ones. Paul Osterman and Beth Shulman make a rigorous argument that by enacting policies to help employers improve job quality we can create better jobs, and futures, for all workers.

Good Jobs America dispels several myths about low-wage work and job quality. The book demonstrates that mobility out of the low-wage market is a chimera—far too many adults remain trapped in poor-quality jobs. Osterman and Shulman show that while education and training are important, policies aimed at improving earnings equality are essential to lifting workers out of poverty. The book also demolishes the myth that such policies would slow economic growth. The experiences of countries such as France, Germany, and the Netherlands, show that it is possible to mandate higher job standards while remaining competitive in international markets. Good Jobs America shows that both government and the firms that hire low-wage workers have important roles to play in improving the quality of low-wage jobs. Enforcement agencies might bolster the effectiveness of existing regulations by exerting pressure on parent companies, enabling effects to trickle down to the subsidiaries and sub-contractors where low-wage jobs are located. States like New York have already demonstrated that involving community and advocacy groups—such as immigrant rights organizations, social services agencies, and unions—in the enforcement process helps decrease workplace violations. And since better jobs reduce turnover and improve performance, career ladder programs within firms help create positions employees can aspire to. But in order for ladder programs to work, firms must also provide higher rungs—the career advancement opportunities workers need to get ahead.

Low-wage employment occupies a significant share of the American labor market, but most of these jobs offer little and lead nowhere. Good Jobs America reappraises what we know about job quality and low-wage employment and makes a powerful argument for our obligation to help the most vulnerable workers. A core principle of U.S. society is that good jobs be made accessible to all. This book proposes that such a goal is possible if we are committed to realizing it.

PAUL OSTERMAN is NTU Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management as well as a member of the Department of Urban Planning at MIT.

BETH SHULMAN was senior fellow at Demos, chair of the Board of the National Employment Law Project, and co-chair of the Fairness Initiative on Low-Wage Work.

"In the last decade, the growing body of research by sociologists and economists showing that advantages in one generation are inherited by the next has clearly filtered through to policymakers who now consider economic mobility to be an important policy objective. Persistence, Privilege, and Parenting breaks new ground by probing deeper into the various factors over the life course that contribute to differences in intergenerational mobility across countries. The work in this volume advances our knowledge and will contribute to policy discussions going forward."
-BHASH MAZUMDER, senior economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

"This eye-opening collection of papers on cross-national research on social mobility is an invaluable contribution to the literature. It is no exaggeration to say that it is a must-read volume for students of stratification and the family."
-FRANK F. FURSTENBERG, Zellerbach Family Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania

"That growing up poor does not mean one's children will be poor is a source of pride in America, 'the land of opportunity.' But how does intergenerational mobility in education and income in the United States stack up against mobility in other advanced industrialized countries? What are the sources of differences across countries in rates of intergenerational mobility? What roles do public policies and social institutions play in leveling the playing field in particular countries? Making use of rich recent data from a variety of countries, Persistence, Privilege, and Parenting addresses these questions and provides striking and compelling evidence with important implications for debates about public tax and expenditures policies."
-RICHARD J. MURNANE, Thompson Professor of Education and Society, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Americans like to believe that theirs is the land of opportunity, but the hard facts are that children born into poor families in the United States tend to stay poor and children born into wealthy families generally stay rich. Other countries have shown more success at lessening the effects of inequality on mobility—possibly by making public investments in education, health, and family well-being that offset the private advantages of the wealthy. What can the United States learn from these other countries about how to provide children from disadvantaged backgrounds an equal chance in life? Making comparisons across ten countries, Persistence, Privilege, and Parenting brings together a team of eminent international scholars to examine why advantage and disadvantage persist across generations. The book sheds light on how the social and economic mobility of children differs within and across countries and the impact private family resources, public policies, and social institutions may have on mobility.

In what ways do parents pass advantage or disadvantage on to their children? Persistence, Privilege, and Parenting is an expansive exploration of the relationship between parental socioeconomic status and background and the outcomes of their grown children. The authors also address the impact of education and parental financial assistance on mobility. Contributors Miles Corak, Lori Curtis, and Shelley Phipps look at how family economic background influences the outcomes of adult children in the United States and Canada. They find that, despite many cultural similarities between the two countries, Canada has three times the rate of intergenerational mobility as the United States—possibly because Canada makes more public investments in its labor market, health care, and family programs. Jo Blanden and her colleagues explore a number of factors affecting how advantage is transmitted between parents and children in the United States and the United Kingdom, including education, occupation, marriage, and health. They find that despite the two nations having similar rates of intergenerational mobility and social inequality, lack of educational opportunity plays a greater role in limiting U.S. mobility, while the United Kingdom’s deeply rooted social class structure makes it difficult for the disadvantaged to transcend their circumstances. Jane Waldfogel and Elizabeth Washbrook examine cognitive and behavioral school readiness across income groups and find that pre-school age children in both the United States and Britain show substantial income-related gaps in school readiness—driven in part by poorly developed parenting skills among overburdened, low-income families. The authors suggest that the most encouraging policies focus on both school and home interventions, including such measures as increases in federal funding for Head Start programs in the United States, raising pre-school staff qualifications in Britain, and parenting programs in both countries.

A significant step forward in the study of intergenerational mobility, Persistence, Privilege, and Parenting demonstrates that the transmission of advantage or disadvantage from one generation to the next varies widely from country to country. This striking finding is a particular cause for concern in the United States, where the persistence of disadvantage remains stubbornly high. But, it provides a reason to hope that by better understanding mobility across the generations abroad, we can find ways to do better at home.

TIMOTHY M. SMEEDING is director of the Institute for Research on Poverty and Distinguished Professor of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

ROBERT ERIKSON is professor of sociology at the Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University.

MARKUS JANTTI is professor of economics at the Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University.

CONTRIBUTORS: Jo Blanden, Miles Corak, Lori J. Curtis, Matthew Di Carlo, Greg J. Duncan, Robert Erikson, John Ermisch, Gøsta Epsing-Andersen, David B. Grusky, Robert Haveman, Markus Jäntti, John Jerrim, Jan O. Jonsson, Ariel Kalil, Bertrand Maître, John Micklewright, Carina Mood, Brian Nolan, Fabian T. Pfeffer, Shelley Phipps, Reinhard Pollak, Chiara Pronzato, Timothy M. Smeeding, James P. Smith, Kjetil Telle, Sander Wagner, Jane Waldfogel, Elizabeth Washbrook, Christopher T. Whelan, Kathryn Wilson, Kathleen M. Ziol-Guest, Julie M. Zissimopoulos

"Just Neighbors? is a needed and welcome assessment of African American and Latino relations. As more of the nation's major cities become majority minority a key question becomes how people and communities of color interact with, understand, and affect one another. Edward Telles and colleagues have pulled together an excellent set of articles that in a rich and mutually informing manner, span the fields of anthropology, political science, and sociology. The work highlights the dynamics of group identity and stereotyping processes, of local context and characteristics particularly within the labor market, and especially of community leadership in molding the tenor of group relations. Just Neighbors? provides an important and broad-gauge baseline for serious scholarship on black-Latino relations."
-LAWRENCE D. BOBO, W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences, Harvard University

"Studies of intergroup relations traditionally have been framed in terms of minority-majority interactions. In the United States, this meant black-white relations or, more recently, Hispanic-white relations. As the United States becomes a minority-majority society with no single dominant group, however, this framing increasingly does not apply. Equally important now and in the future are minority-minority relations, and perhaps no relationship is as critical as to the future of America as that between blacks and Hispanics. Interactions between these groups will determine much about the future demography, politics, and socioeconomic structure of the nation. Just Neighbors? is a timely and very welcome contribution to the scholarly literature, bringing together the nation's top researchers on blacks and Hispanics and the relations between them to synthesize what is known-and not known-about this critical issue."
-DOUGLAS S. MASSEY, Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, Princeton University

"Just Neighbors? is a much-needed and brilliant contribution to the increasingly important fields of critical race theory and empirical racial studies. Edward Telles, Mark Sawyer, and Gaspar Rivera-Salgado and the authors they have brought to this project accomplish two extremely difficult but critical tasks. First, the authors in this volume are able to knit together and expand upon theoretical and empirical studies of racial dynamics in the United States, especially the Southwest. While many have argued that racial studies in the United States must move beyond the black-white paradigm, these authors, using the finest social science research methods, move our theoretically informed empirical understanding of these phenomena qualitatively forward. Second, as the editors explain, there is relatively little research that studies the dynamics between populations of color that also is sensitive to intra-group as well as inter-group differences. Thus, their probing of black-Latino cooperation and conflict in a number of domains is a valuable contribution to our understanding of what will be increasingly a foundation of American politics and civil society in the decades to come. Bravo!"
-MICHAEL DAWSON, John D. MacArthur Professor of Political Science and director, Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture, The University of Chicago

Blacks and Latinos have transformed the American city—together these groups now constitute the majority in seven of the ten largest cities. Large-scale immigration from Latin America has been changing U.S. racial dynamics for decades, and Latino migration to new destinations is changing the face of the American south. Yet most of what social science has helped us to understand about these groups has been observed primarily in relation to whites—not each other. Just Neighbors? challenges the traditional black/white paradigm of American race relations by examining African Americans and Latinos as they relate to each other in the labor market, the public sphere, neighborhoods, and schools. The book shows the influence of race, class, and received stereotypes on black-Latino social interactions and offers insight on how finding common ground may benefit both groups.

From the labor market and political coalitions to community organizing, street culture, and interpersonal encounters, Just Neighbors? analyzes a spectrum of Latino-African American social relations to understand when and how these groups cooperate or compete. Contributor Frank Bean and his co-authors show how the widely held belief that Mexican immigration weakens job prospects for native-born black workers is largely unfounded—especially as these groups are rarely in direct competition for jobs. Michael Jones-Correa finds that Latino integration beyond the traditional gateway cities promotes seemingly contradictory feelings: a sense of connectedness between the native minority and the newcomers but also perceptions of competition. Mark Sawyer explores the possibilities for social and political cooperation between the two groups in Los Angeles and finds that lingering stereotypes among both groups, as well as negative attitudes among blacks about immigration, remain powerful but potentially surmountable forces in group relations. Regina Freer and Claudia Sandoval examine how racial and ethnic identity impacts coalition building between Latino and black youth and find that racial pride and a sense of linked fate encourages openness to working across racial lines.

Black and Latino populations have become a majority in the largest U.S. cities, yet their combined demographic dominance has not abated both groups’ social and economic disadvantage in comparison to whites. Just Neighbors? lays a much-needed foundation for studying social relations between minority groups. This trailblazing book shows that, neither natural allies nor natural adversaries, Latinos and African Americans have a profound potential for coalition-building and mutual cooperation. They may well be stronger together rather than apart.

EDWARD TELLES is professor of sociology at Princeton University and vice president of the American Sociological Association.

MARK Q. SAWYER is associate professor of African American studies and political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, and is also director of the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Politics.

GASPAR RIVERA-SALGADO is project director at the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education.

CONTRIBUTORS: James D. Bachmeier, Matt A. Barreto, Frand D. Bean, Susan K. Brown, Jessica Johnson Carew, Niambi Carter, Regina M. Freer, Michael Jones-Correa, Gerald F. Lackey, Claudia Sandoval Lopez, Monique L. Lyle, Cid Martinez, Paula D. McClain, Monica McDermott, Tatcho Mindiola Jr., Jason L. Morin, Tatishe M. Nteta, Shayla C. Nunnally, Efren O. Perez, Victor M. Rios, Nestor Rodriquez, Gabriel R. Sanchez, Candis Watts, Rosaura Tafoya-Estrada, James Diego Vgil, Kevin Wallsten, Eugene Walton Jr., Sylvia Zamora.

"This is the first systematic, scholarly analysis of the initial effects of the Great Recession on the well-being of American workers and families. The authors analyze historical and recent data and document who lost their jobs, their homes, their financial assets; how the Federal stimulus bill enhanced the safety net for the poor and unemployed; and how individuals, families, and institutions responded to the economic shocks. Taken together, the chapters present a gloomy forecast. Job losses have been greater and the recovery slower than in other recessions and the 'deficit mania' that prevents new Federal stimulus and encourages state and local government layoffs means that unemployment and poverty will remain high for at least the next five years."
—Sheldon H. Danziger, H. J. Meyer Distinguished University Professor of Public Policy, University of Michigan

"This is a collection of basic studies of the economic, social, cultural, and political consequences of the economic downturn of 2008-2009. A first-rate team of social scientists contributes an impressively thorough set of analyses that go well beyond journalistic accounts, which tend to overemphasize the dramatic, the short-term, and the anecdotal. Yet The Great Recession is timely, important, and novel-essential reading about the broad implications of the great economic crisis of our time."
—Robert D. Mare, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Statistics, UCLA

Officially over in 2009, the Great Recession is now generally acknowledged to be the most devastating global economic crisis since the Great Depression. As a result of the crisis, the United States lost more than 7.5 million jobs, and the unemployment rate doubled—peaking at more than 10 percent. The collapse of the housing market and subsequent equity market fluctuations delivered a one-two punch that destroyed trillions of dollars in personal wealth and made many Americans far less financially secure. Still reeling from these early shocks, the U.S. economy will undoubtedly take years to recover. Less clear, however, are the social effects of such economic hardship on a U.S. population accustomed to long periods of prosperity. How are Americans responding to these hard times? The Great Recession is the first authoritative assessment of how the aftershocks of the recession are affecting individuals and families, jobs, earnings and poverty, political and social attitudes, lifestyle and consumption practices, and charitable giving.

Focused on individual-level effects rather than institutional causes, The Great Recession turns to leading experts to examine whether the economic aftermath caused by the recession is transforming how Americans live their lives, what they believe in, and the institutions they rely on. Contributors Michael Hout, Asaf Levanon, and Erin Cumberworth show how job loss during the recession—the worst since the 1980s—hit less-educated workers, men, immigrants, and factory and construction workers the hardest. Millions of lost industrial jobs are likely never to be recovered and where new jobs are appearing, they tend to be either high-skill positions or low-wage employment—offering few opportunities for the middle-class. Edward Wolff, Lindsay Owens, and Esra Burak examine the effects of the recession on housing and wealth for the very poor and the very rich. They find that while the richest Americans experienced the greatest absolute wealth loss, their resources enabled them to weather the crisis better than the young families, African Americans, and the middle class, who experienced the most disproportionate loss—including mortgage delinquencies, home foreclosures, and personal bankruptcies. Lane Kenworthy and Lindsay Owens ask whether this recession is producing enduring shifts in public opinion akin to those that followed the Great Depression. Surprisingly, they find no evidence of recession-induced attitude changes toward corporations, the government, perceptions of social justice, or policies aimed at aiding the poor. Similarly, Philip Morgan, Erin Cumberworth, and Christopher Wimer find no major recession effects on marriage, divorce, or cohabitation rates. They do find a decline in fertility rates, as well as increasing numbers of adult children returning home to the family nest—evidence that suggests deep pessimism about recovery.

This protracted slump—marked by steep unemployment, profound destruction of wealth, and sluggish consumer activity—will likely continue for years to come, and more pronounced effects may surface down the road. The contributors note that, to date, this crisis has not yet generated broad shifts in lifestyle and attitudes. But by clarifying how the recession’s early impacts have—and have not—influenced our current economic and social landscape, The Great Recession establishes an important benchmark against which to measure future change.

DAVID B. GRUSKY is professor of sociology at Stanford University.

BRUCE WESTERN is professor of sociology at Harvard University.

CHRISTOPHER WIMER is associate director of the Collaboration for Poverty Research and senior editor of Pathways at the Stanford Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality.

"Homelessness is a transient condition for most of those afflicted, but is a continuing frustration for urban policy. This provocative volume engages public health scholars as well as planners, policy makers, and economists in linking interventions to outcomes. We are reminded again of the importance of risk, uncertainty, and savings incentives on economic outcomes-in this case, the transitions in and out of homelessness. Detailed studies of mental health treatments offered to vulnerable populations confirm their overall importance, but suggest that their effects on homelessness per se are small. Reviews of policies designed to address populations at greater risk of homelessness illustrate the tradeoff policy makers face between programs highly targeted to vulnerable populations and the moral hazard these programs encourage. How to House the Homeless offers concrete ideas to reduce the incidence of homelessness and to help in the design of more effective long-run policies."
-JOHN M. QUIGLEY, I. Donald Terner Distinguished Professor and professor of economics, University of California, Berkeley

"This is the most rigorous treatment I know of the problem of homelessness. The chapters have excellent empirical analysis leading naturally to policy implications. How to House the Homeless is particularly successful at characterizing the extent that homelessness is, per se, a housing problem."
-RICHARD GREEN, director and chair of the Lusk Center for Real Estate and professor in the School of Policy, Planning, and Development and the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California

"How to House the Homeless sharpens our thinking about how housing policy can end homelessness as we know it. Its top-flight interdisciplinary group of authors offers a fresh review of key programs and policies including Housing First, subsidized housing, and land-use regulations. It is a must read for anyone who wants to understand fundamental debates in the field, challenging us to consider why assisted housing is the answer-and why it can never be the answer."
-SANDRA NEWMAN, professor of policy studies, Johns Hopkins University

How to House the Homeless, editors Ingrid Gould Ellen and Brendan O’Flaherty propose that the answers entail rethinking how housing markets operate and developing more efficient interventions in existing service programs. The book critically reassesses where we are now, analyzes the most promising policies and programs going forward, and offers a new agenda for future research.

How to House the Homeless makes clear the inextricable link between homelessness and housing policy. Contributor Jill Khadduri reviews the current residential services system and housing subsidy programs. For the chronically homeless, she argues, a combination of assisted housing approaches can reach the greatest number of people and, specifically, an expanded Housing Choice Voucher system structured by location, income, and housing type can more efficiently reach people at-risk of becoming homeless and reduce time spent homeless. Robert Rosenheck examines the options available to homeless people with mental health problems and reviews the cost-effectiveness of five service models: system integration, supported housing, clinical case management, benefits outreach, and supported employment. He finds that only programs that subsidize housing make a noticeable dent in homelessness, and that no one program shows significant benefits in multiple domains of life.

Contributor Sam Tsemberis assesses the development and cost-effectiveness of the Housing First program, which serves mentally ill homeless people in more than four hundred cities. He asserts that the program’s high housing retention rate and general effectiveness make it a viable candidate for replication across the country. Steven Raphael makes the case for a strong link between homelessness and local housing market regulations—which affect housing affordability—and shows that the problem is more prevalent in markets with stricter zoning laws. Finally, Brendan O’Flaherty bridges the theoretical gap between the worlds of public health and housing research, evaluating the pros and cons of subsidized housing programs and the economics at work in the rental housing market and home ownership. Ultimately, he suggests, the most viable strategies will serve as safety nets—“social insurance”—to reach people who are homeless now and to prevent homelessness in the future.

It is crucial that the links between effective policy and the whole cycle of homelessness—life conditions, service systems, and housing markets—be made clear now. With a keen eye on the big picture of housing policy, How to House the Homeless shows what works and what doesn’t in reducing the numbers of homeless and reaching those most at risk.

INGRID GOULD ELLEN is professor of public policy and urban planning at the New York University Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. 

BRENDAN O’FLAHERTY is professor of economics at Columbia University.

CONTRIBUTORS: Ingrid Gould Ellen, Jill Khadduri, Brendan O’Flaherty, Edgar O. Olsen, Stephen Raphael, Robert Rosenheck, Sam Tsemberis

"At a time when we are desperate for any jobs at all, we must remember that the quality of work is also important. Far too many people work hard yet cannot support their families and have few prospects for upward mobility. Harry Holzer, Julia Lane, David Rosenblum, and Fredrik Andersson help us understand the trajectory of job creation in America and where good jobs come from. They utilize a unique data source that has the great virtue of including information on employers as well as the more standard measures of individual traits and hence they can study the interaction of firm and worker characteristics. They are able to describe the processes of job creation-birth and death of firms as well as their expansion and contraction-and they bring geography into the mix and show how the creation, or lack thereof, of good jobs varies by metropolitan area. This rich and detailed book will be essential for anyone interested in job quality in America."
-PAUL OSTERMAN, Nanyang Technological University Professor of Human Resources and Management, the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management

"Reversing the rise in income inequality and the increasing polarization of the labor market will take a concerted focus on both the quality of jobs employers create and the education and skills of the workforce. Using a unique matched data set of employers and employees, Where Are All the Good Jobs Going? provides a new take on some old issues, importantly on the relationship between job quality and job displacement and on strategies metropolitan areas can use to support new businesses that create good jobs."
-EILEEN APPELBAUM, senior economist, Center for Economic and Policy Research

Deindustrialization in the United States has triggered record-setting joblessness in manufacturing centers from Detroit to Baltimore. At the same time, global competition and technological change have actually stimulated both new businesses and new jobs. The jury is still out, however, on how many of these positions represent a significant source of long-term job quality and security. Where Are All the Good Jobs Going? addresses the most pressing questions for today’s workers: whether the U.S. labor market can still produce jobs with good pay and benefits for the majority of workers and whether these jobs can remain stable over time.

What constitutes a “good” job, who gets them, and are they becoming more or less secure? Where Are All the Good Jobs Going? examines U.S. job quality and volatility from the perspectives of both workers and employers. The authors analyze the Longitudinal Employer Household Dynamics (LEHD) data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau, and the book covers data for twelve states during twelve years, 1992–2003, resulting in an unprecedented examination of workers and firms in several industries over time.

Counter to conventional wisdom, the authors find that good jobs are not disappearing, but their character and location have changed. The market produces fewer good jobs in manufacturing and more in professional services and finance. Not surprisingly, the best jobs with the highest pay still go to the most educated workers. The most vulnerable workers—older, low-income, and low-skilled—work in the most insecure environments where they can be easily downsized or displaced by a fickle labor market. A higher federal minimum wage and increased unionization can contribute to the creation of well paying jobs. So can economic strategies that help smaller metropolitan areas support new businesses. These efforts, however, must function in tandem with policies that prepare workers for available positions, such as improving general educational attainment and providing career education.

Where Are All the Good Jobs Going? makes clear that future policies will need to address not only how to produce good jobs but how to produce good workers. This cohesive study takes the necessary first steps with a sensible approach to the needs of workers and the firms that hire them.

HARRY J. HOLZER is professor of public policy at Georgetown University.

JULIA I. LANE is program director of Science of Science and Innovation Policy at the National Science Foundation, research fellow at the Institute of Labor (IZA), Bonn Germany, and former senior research fellow at the U.S. Bureau of the Census.

DAVID B. ROSENBLUM is senior economic analyst at NORC at the University of Chicago.

FREDRIK ANDERSSON is an economist in the Economics Department of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, U.S. Department of the Treasury.

"Bringing together a team of internationally known social scientists and historians, Social Contracts Under Stress exam ines the expansion of the middle classes in the United States, Western Europe, and Japan, as well as the problems that the universalist promise of the post-1945 'democratization of wealth' ran into in later decades. A truly outstanding anthology that convinces by virtue of its intellectual rigor and cohesion-and its timeliness-as the industrialized nations face the age-old social contract question, but this time on a global scale."
-Volker R. Berghahn, Columbia University

"It is rare that a single volume covers so important a theme across so wide a swath of nations at so high a level of analysis. This book explores the postwar social contract as it comes under increasing strain at the turn of our own century. The growth of the middle class-above all the turning of former proletarians into members of the bourgeoisie-was the social and political basis of postwar stability and democracy. This process, though similar across the industrialized world, took different inflections in various nations: from the the European focus on redistribution and social welfare, through the North American liberalist concern with consumer society, to the Japanese solution whereby exporting industries earned the wherewithal that allowed inefficient modes of production to continue, cushioning the hard social choices that would have been necessary in its absence. In our own day, however, this social contract has been challenged: by issues of race and gender and, above all, by globalization and the hard social choices it requires. It is such problems, at the core of contemporary political dilemmas, that these essays address with vision, rigor, and coherence."
-Peter Baldwin, University of California, Los Angeles

The years following World War II saw a huge expansion of the middle classes in the world's industrialized nations, with a significant part of the working class becoming absorbed into the middle class. Although never explicitly formalized, it was as though a new social contract called for government, business, and labor to work together to ensure greater political freedom and more broadly shared economic prosperity. For the most part, they succeeded. In Social Contracts Under Stress, eighteen experts from seven countries examine this historic transformation and look ahead to assess how the middle class might fare in the face of slowing economic growth and increasing globalization.

The first section of the book focuses on the differing experiences of Germany, Britain, France, the United States, and Japan as they became middle-class societies. The British working classes, for example, were slowest to consider themselves middle class, while in Japan by the 1960s, most workers had abandoned working-class identity. The French remain more fragmented among various middle classes and resist one homogenous entity. Part II presents compelling evidence that the rise of a huge middle class was far from inclusive or free of social friction. Some contributors discuss how the social contract reinforced long-standing prejudices toward minorities and women. In the United States, Ira Katznelson writes, Southern politicians used measures that should have promoted equality, such as the GI bill, to exclude blacks from full access to opportunity. In her review of gender and family models, Chiara Saraceno finds that Mediterranean countries have mobilized the power of the state to maintain a division of labor between men and women. The final section examines what effect globalization might have on the middle class. Leonard Schoppa's careful analysis of the relevant data shows how globalization has pushed "less skilled workers down and more skilled workers up out of a middle class that had for a few decades been home to both." Although Europe has resisted the rise of inequality more effectively than the United States or Japan, several contributors wonder how long that resistance can last.

Social Contracts Under Stress argues convincingly that keeping the middle class open and inclusive in the face of current economic pressures will require a collective will extending across countries. This book provides an invaluable guide for assessing the issues that must be considered in such an effort.

OLIVIER ZUNZ is Commonwealth Professor of History, University of Virginia.

LEONARD SCHOPPA is associate professor in the Woodrow Wilson Department of Government and Foreign Affairs, University of Virginia.

NOBUHIRO HIWATARI is professor of political science at the University of Tokyo.

Offers two extended essays by two eminent social scientists on trusteeship and foundation management. The first essay, by Dr. Moore, reflects the author's long interest in the relations between the economy and the society. He examines trusteeship as a combination and interrelation of three main principles: custodial relations, lay control, and the law of trusts. Dr. Young's essay, the longer and more pragmatic of the two, applies these principles to the actual management of philanthropic foundations. Dr. Young draws upon his experience as a president of two social science foundations in his discussion of both the old and new "proprietary" foundations.

DONALD R. YOUNG is at Rockefeller University.

WILBERT E. MOORE is at the Russell Sage Foundation.