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In Freaks, Geeks and Cool Kids , award-winning-sociologist Murray Milner draws upon two years of intensive fieldwork in one high school and 300 written interviews about high school life across the USA. What he discovers through their stories is that high schools are breeding grounds for status ...

In Freaks, Geeks and Cool Kids , award-winning-sociologist Murray Milner draws upon two years of intensive fieldwork in one high school and 300 written interviews about high school life across the USA. What he discovers through their stories is that high schools are breeding grounds for status consciousness and 'keeping up with the Joneses' mentality. Milner argues that the importance of who sits at which lunch table, who goes to the prom with whom and who makes the cheerleading squad or football team, as well as what jeans, sneakers and t-shirts one wears, are essential for teenagers to distinguish themselves from one another. As teens use status objects to define themselves, they both become the trendsetters for the culture at large and are also compelled to buy into the trends to look cool. In other words, 'being cool' may come at a price, but it is one that teens are more than willing to pay.

Harry Potter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the Left Behind series are but the latest manifestations of American teenagers' longstanding fascination with the supernatural and the paranormal. In this groundbreaking book, Lynn Schofield Clark explores the implications of this fascination for ...

Harry Potter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the Left Behind series are but the latest manifestations of American teenagers' longstanding fascination with the supernatural and the paranormal. In this groundbreaking book, Lynn Schofield Clark explores the implications of this fascination for contemporary religious and spiritual practices. Relying on stories gleaned from more than 250 in-depth interviews with teens and their families, Clark seeks to discover what today's teens really believe and why. She finds that as adherence to formal religious bodies declines, interest in alternative spiritualities as well as belief in "superstition" grow accordingly. Ironically, she argues, fundamentalist Christian alarmism about the forces of evil has also fed belief in a wider array of supernatural entities. Resisting the claim that the media "brainwash" teens, Clark argues that today's popular stories of demons, hell, and the afterlife actually have their roots in the U.S.'s religious heritage. She considers why some young people are nervous about supernatural stories in the media, while others comfortably and often unselfconsciously blur the boundaries between those stories of the realm beyond that belong to traditional religion and those offered by the entertainment media. At a time of increased religious pluralism and declining participation in formal religious institutions, Clark says, we must completely reexamine what young people mean--and what they may believe--when they identify themselves as "spiritual" or "religious." Offering provocative insights into how the entertainment media shape contemporary religious ideas and practices, From Angels to Aliens paints a surprising--and perhaps alarming--portrait of the spiritual state of America's youth.

Since 1958, twenty-five men and two women have forced the Supreme Court to consider whether the Constitution's promises of equal protection apply to gay Americans. Here former Washington Post editor Joyce Murdoch and her partner, celebrated lesbian columnist Deb Price, reveal how the nation's ...

Since 1958, twenty-five men and two women have forced the Supreme Court to consider whether the Constitution's promises of equal protection apply to gay Americans. Here former Washington Post editor Joyce Murdoch and her partner, celebrated lesbian columnist Deb Price, reveal how the nation's highest court has reacted to these cases -- from the surprising 1958 victory of a tiny homosexual magazine to the 2000 defeat of a gay Eagle Scout. A triumph of investigative reporting, Courting Justice draws on interviews with justices' friends, relatives, and former clerks to offer an inside look at individual rulings and the often surprising context of those decisions. Murdoch and Price's careful research and passionate advocacy give us an inspiring new perspective on the unfolding of the gay rights movement in America.