Why Nothing Works: The Anthropology of Daily LifeThis book is about cults, crime, and shoddy goods, and the shrinking dollar. It's about porno parlors, and sex shops, and men kissing in the streets. It's about daughters shaking up, women on the rampage, marriages postponed, divorces on the rise, and no one having kids. It's about old ladies getting mugged and raped, people shoved in front of trains, and shoot-outs at gas pumps. And letters that take weeks to get delivered, waiters who throw food at you, rude sales help, and computers that bill you for things you never bought. It's about broken benches, waterless fountains, cracked windows, dirty toilets, crater-filled roads, graffiti-covered buildings, slashed paintings, toppled statues, stolen books. It's about shoelaces that break in a week, bulbs that keep burning out, pens that won't write, cars that rust, stamps that don't stick, stitches that don't hold, buttons that pop off, zippers that jam, planes that lose their engines, reactors that leak, dams that burst, roofs that collapse... It's about astrologers, shamans, exorcists, witches, and angels in space suits... It's about a lot of other things that are new and strange in America today. —from the Introduction |
Contents
Preface to the Second Edition | vi |
Introduction | 7 |
Why Nothing Works | 17 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
AFDC American anthropologist automation Azande baby boom birthrate black families black males born-again breadwinner family bureaucratic cars catastrophic disservices changes cities companies conglomerates consumer corporations cost crime rates criminal cults culture customers debt dollars Etoro example factory feminist gay liberation ghettos Hispanic homicide homosexual husbands income increase industrial inefficient inflation inflationary inner-city Japan Japanese labor force less line 24 line 35 living marital and procreative marriage married women masturbation ment million Moonies Morton Thiokol movement muggers Murphy's Law oligopoly people-processing percent planned obsolescence procreative imperative production religious rise robberies Robert Bellah role Scientology sector sexual shoddy social society spiritual Third Great Awakening tion trend U.S. Government U.S. manufacturers unemployed unemployment United urban victimization studies victims violent crime wages welfare white women women's liberation World World War II York