Bootstrapped by Alissa Quart

Bootstrapped by Alissa Quart

An unsparing, incisive, yet ultimately hopeful look at how we can shed the American obsession with self-reliance that has made us less healthy, less secure, and less fulfilled

The promise that you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps is central to the story of the American Dream. It's the belief that if you work hard and rely on your own resources, you will eventually succeed. However, time and again we have seen how this foundational myth, with its emphasis on individual determination, brittle self-sufficiency, and personal accomplishment, does not help us. Instead, as income inequality rises around us, we are left with shame and self-blame for our condition.

Acclaimed journalist Alissa Quart argues that at the heart of our suffering is a do-it-yourself ethos, the misplaced belief in our own independence and the conviction that we must rely on ourselves alone. Looking at a range of delusions and half solutions--from grit to the false Horatio Alger story to the rise of GoFundMe--Quart reveals how we have been steered away from robust social programs that would address the root causes of our problems. Meanwhile, the responsibility for survival has been shifted onto the backs of ordinary people, burdening generations with debt instead of providing the social safety net we so desperately need.

Insightful, sharply argued, and characterized by Quart's lively writing and deep reporting, and for fans of Evicted and Nickel and Dimed, Bootstrapped is a powerful examination of what ails us at a societal level and a plan for how we can free ourselves from these self-defeating narratives.

Quart, Alissa: - Alissa Quart's poetry has appeared in the London Review of Books, The Awl, Fence, Open City, Feminist Studies, and many other publications, as well as in her poetry chapbook Solarized. She is the author of three non- fiction books: Branded (Basic Books, 2003), Hothouse Kids (Penguin Press, 2006), and Republic of Outsiders: The Power of Amateurs, Dreamers and Rebels (The New Press, 2013). Her nonfiction titles have been translated into 14 languages. She has written features for The New York Times Magazine, Elle, The Atlantic, The Nation, and many other magazines and has contributed frequent reported opinion pieces to The New York Times and elsewhere. With Barbara Ehrenreich, she is editor of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, a non-profit that supports journalism about inequality. She wrote and produced the Emmy-nominated multimedia project The Last Clinic for The Atavist. She has taught at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism among other universities and was a 2010 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.

SKU	Nicht verfügbar
ISBN 13	9780063028005
ISBN 10	006302800X
Titel	Bootstrapped
Autor	Alissa Quart
Buchzustand	Nicht verfügbar
Bindungsart	Hardback
Verlag	HarperCollins Publishers Inc
Erscheinungsjahr	2023-03-14
Seitenanzahl	288
Hinweis auf dem Einband	Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden.
Hinweis	Nicht verfügbar