Is the consciousness of Americans in the midst of dramatic transformation? Or do people think and feel much the same as they have always thought and felt? Do most people enjoy their work, or hate it? Is the American family being replaced by new institutional forms, or is it much the same as it was in the 1950's? Have material values been replaced by a "postmaterial consciousness" in a postindustrial society? Are Americans becoming more conservative, less conservative, or staying about the same? State of the Masses asks the important questions. Originally published in 1986, this prescient study evaluate the views of social critics, neo-conservatives, neo-Marxists, post-industrialists, and the theorists of the little man, who puport to describe the nature, social conditions, outlooks, and motivations of the American populace. The claims of one group are often diametrically opposed to those of another. The authors make the case for which claims can be considered true and which false. Hamilton and Wright analyze the contradictory claims and compares their implications with the best social science research and data available at that time. They also explore the implications for theories in light of the conflicting portrait the evidence provides. The authors conclude with a new perspective for understanding continuities and changes in the United States. This is a prescient view of American society during turmoil, and a model for how social science research can be used predictively.

State of the Masses

History

Wright, James D.

Hamilton, Richard F.

Americas

Aldine de Gruyter

The State of the Masses

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Armed and Considered Dangerous is a book about "bad guys" and their guns. But Wright and Rossi contend that for every suspected criminal who owns and abuses a firearm, a hundred or more average citizens own guns for sport, for recreation, for self-protection, and for other reasons generally regarded as appropriate or legitimate. Armed and Considered Dangerous is the most ambitious survey ever undertaken of criminal acquisition, possession, and use of guns.There are vast differences between the average gun owner and the average gun-abusing felon, but the analyses reported here do not suggest any obvious way to translate these differences into gun control policies. Most policy implications drawn from the book are negative in character: this will not work for this reason, that will not work for that reason, and so on. When experts are asked, "Okay, then what will work?" they usually fall back on the old warhorses of poverty, the drug problem, or the inadequate resources of the criminal justice system, and otherwise have little to say. This is not a failure of social science. It simply asks more of the data than the data were ever intended to provide.Several of Wright and Rossi's findings have become "coin of the realm" in the gun control debate, cited frequently by persons who have long since forgotten where the data came from or what their limitations are. Several other findings, including many that are important, have been largely ignored. Still other findings have been superseded by better and more recent data or rendered anachronistic by intervening events. With the inclusion of a new introduction detailing recent statistics and updated information this new edition of Armed and Considered Dangerous is a rich source of information for all interested in learning about weapon behavior and ownership in America.

Armed and considered dangerous: A survey of felons and their firearms (Social institutions and social change)

Armed and Considered Dangerous: A Survey of Felons and Their Firearms

Describes the nature of homelessness, its multiple causes, and its demographic, economic, sociological, and social policy antecedents. Finding the origins of the problem to be social and political rather than economic, Wright (human relations, Tulane) outlines remedies based on existing and modified

Address Unknown: The Homeless in America (Social Institutions and Social Change)

de Gruyter

The Greatest of Evils: Urban Poverty and the American Underclass (Social Institutions and Social Change)

This volume, develops three principal themes. First, poverty is not monolithic; secondly, the so-called underclass within the poverty population represents a new and corrosive development; and, third, the War on Poverty of the 1960s offered a boldness of vision that today's poverty policies tend to lack. The authors show how the social and economic costs of poverty-related problems were linked at the policy level to finding useable remedies.  The United States is by far the richest country in the world, yet the specter of poverty haunts it still. Today, nearly 35 million of our citizens languish in poverty, untouched by (although certainly not unaware of) the opulence around them. The official rate of poverty at the turn of the century stood at 13.5 percent and has held roughly constant for the better part of the last decade; in fact, the rate is about where it was twenty-five years ago. How poverty can continue to exist in so rich a nation, and why it is tolerated, has mystified scholars and analysts throughout the twentieth century. Within the past decade, social scientists, journalists, policymakers, and commentators have once again re-awakened to poverty amidst our plenty. This time around, the mood is unmistakably grim.  The authors of this comprehensive survey intend this as a general and largely non-technical overview of poverty, the underclass, and public policy in the contemporary United States. The book is designed to be accessible to anyone who is curious about the poverty problem. Although the work is amply documented, the scholarly apparatus of footnotes, references, and tables of data has not been permitted to overwhelm the practical, textual tasks and audience for which the work has been designed.

Devine, Joel A.

This volume, develops three principal themes. First, poverty is not monolithic; secondly, the so-called underclass within the poverty population represents a new and corrosive development; and, third, the War on Poverty of the 1960s offered a boldness of vision that today's poverty policies tend to lack. The authors show how the social and economic costs of poverty-related problems were linked at the policy level to finding useable remedies. The United States is by far the richest country in the world, yet the specter of poverty haunts it still. Today, nearly 35 million of our citizens languish in poverty, untouched by (although certainly not unaware of) the opulence around them. The official rate of poverty at the turn of the century stood at 13.5 percent and has held roughly constant for the better part of the last decade; in fact, the rate is about where it was twenty-five years ago. How poverty can continue to exist in so rich a nation, and why it is tolerated, has mystified scholars and analysts throughout the twentieth century. Within the past decade, social scientists, journalists, policymakers, and commentators have once again re-awakened to poverty amidst our plenty. This time around, the mood is unmistakably grim. The authors of this comprehensive survey intend this as a general and largely non-technical overview of poverty, the underclass, and public policy in the contemporary United States. The book is designed to be accessible to anyone who is curious about the poverty problem. Although the work is amply documented, the scholarly apparatus of footnotes, references, and tables of data has not been permitted to overwhelm the practical, textual tasks and audience for which the work has been designed.

Armed and Considered Dangerous: A Survey of Felons and Their Firearms (Social Institutions and Social Change)

Rossi, Peter H.

In the Line of Fire: Youth, Guns, and Violence in Urban America (Social Institutions and Social Change)

Drawing upon their research in the most extensive study to date, the authors here describe the means and methods of gun-related violence among urban youth. Using data collected from juvenile male inmates and male students in inner-city high schools, Sheley and Wright focus on the number, type, and method of acquisition of firearms, as well as the varying reasons given for carrying arms. The book concludes by challenging some stereotypes, and urging a policy aimed at reducing the motivation for gun possession by youth, rather than simply attempting to remove guns from their hands.

Sheley, Joseph F.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Wright, James D.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Wright, James D.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Wright, James D.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

State of the Masses

The State of the Masses

Armed and considered dangerous: A survey of felons and their firearms (Social institutions and social change)

Armed and Considered Dangerous: A Survey of Felons and Their Firearms

Address Unknown: The Homeless in America (Social Institutions and Social Change)

The Greatest of Evils: Urban Poverty and the American Underclass (Social Institutions and Social Change)

The Greatest of Evils: Urban Poverty and the American Underclass (Social Institutions and Social Change)

Armed and Considered Dangerous: A Survey of Felons and Their Firearms (Social Institutions and Social Change)

In the Line of Fire: Youth, Guns, and Violence in Urban America (Social Institutions and Social Change)

In the Line of Fire: Youth, Guns, and Violence in Urban America (Social Institutions and Social Change)