Cut Adrift - by Marianne Cooper

About the Book

"Cut Adrift makes an important and original contribution to the national conversation about inequality and risk in American society. Set against the backdrop of rising economic insecurity and rolled up safety nets, Marianne Cooper explores what keeps Americans up at night. Through poignant case studies, she reveals what families are concerned about, how they manage their anxiety, whose job it is to worry, and how social class shapes all of these dynamics, including what is even worth worrying about in the first place. This powerful study is packed with intriguing discoveries ranging from the surprising anxieties of the rich, to the critical role of women in keeping struggling families afloat. Through tales of stalwart stoicism, heart-wrenching worry, marital angst, and religious conviction, Cut Adrift deepens our understanding about how families are coping in a go-it-alone age - and how the different strategies affluent, middle-class, and poor families rely upon not only reflect inequality, but also fuel it"--

Book Synopsis

Cut Adrift makes an important and original contribution to the national conversation about inequality and risk in American society. Set against the backdrop of rising economic insecurity and rolled-up safety nets, Marianne Cooper's probing analysis explores what keeps Americans up at night. Through poignant case studies, she reveals what families are concerned about, how they manage their anxiety, whose job it is to worry, and how social class shapes all of these dynamics, including what is even worth worrying about in the first place. This powerful study is packed with intriguing discoveries ranging from the surprising anxieties of the rich to the critical role of women in keeping struggling families afloat. Through tales of stalwart stoicism, heart-wrenching worry, marital angst, and religious conviction, Cut Adrift deepens our understanding of how families are coping in a go-it-alone age--and how the different strategies on which affluent, middle-class, and poor families rely upon not only reflect inequality, but fuel it.

From the Back Cover

"In this powerful book, Marianne Cooper weaves together carefully researched data about growing economic insecurity and gripping stories of families coping with these trends. Cooper has written an intimate look into what families are up against and the strategies they use to navigate the challenges they face. Cut Adrift provides a compelling examination of the pressing economic issues of our time."--Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook and Founder, LeanIn.org

"Too often the statistics about rising insecurity crowd out the real-life stories of families struggling to adjust to new realities. With this deeply researched examination of families living in the nation's tech capital of Silicon Valley, Marianne Cooper reminds us why the statistics matter. She offers not only a wrenching journey into the lives of the insecure but a revealing framework for understanding the varied ways in which Americans are coping, or not, with increased financial risk and strain."--Jacob S. Hacker, Yale University, author of The Great Risk Shift and Winner-Take-All Politics.

"With great insight, Marianne Cooper shows us how Americans are coping in an era of heightened economic anxiety--with the wealthier seeking ever greater financial security and the poorer trying to accommodate ever greater precariousness. Such upscaling and downscaling explains much of the emotional reality behind the menacing economic conditions in modern America."--Robert Reich, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley

"By providing a glimpse into the lives of families under economic pressure, Cooper enables us to see what happens when a nation fails to modernize its relationship to women and helps us understand what we need to do about it.."--Maria Shriver, mother, award-winning journalist and producer, founder of The Shriver Report, and former First Lady of California.

"Cut Adrift is one of the best books I have read in a long time. Cooper's study of families from different social classes shows how worries about financial security penetrate the rhythm of daily life in all of the families (albeit in different ways). The book has impressive ethnographic detail, clarity of the analysis, and originality. My students loved it. Highly recommended!"--Annette Lareau, University of Pennsylvania, President, American Sociological Association

"Talking with moms at soccer matches, accompanying anxious shoppers at the mall, listening to news of a pink slip, Marianne Cooper takes an emotion-sensing stethoscope to the hearts of parents--from richest to poorest--in Silicon Valley, California. In an age of insecurity, Cooper finds that each family assigns a 'designated worrier' to manage anxiety about drawing to--or going over--the financial edge. This is a brilliant book and a must-read."--Arlie Hochschild, author of The Second Shift, The Outsourced Self, and So How's the Family? and Other Essays.

"An important and insightful examination of family life during an economic downturn."--Vicki Smith, University of California, Davis, author of Crossing the Great Divide: Worker Risk and Opportunity in the New Economy

"A poignant, powerful story of how families are coping with rampant economic insecurity."--Allison Pugh, University of Virginia, author of Longing and Belonging: Parents, Children, and Consumer Culture

Review Quotes

"Accessible, elucidating, and grounded in real stories. . . . Cooper offers a robust analysis of gender dynamics, with sharp insights about the heavy burden on women to manage the family's anxiety. Cooper's necessary and timely study is a discomfiting reminder of the human cost of the recession." STARRED REVIEW-- "Publishers Weekly" (5/5/2014 12:00:00 AM)

"Cooper's interviewees are fascinating, heartbreakingly optimistic in their poverty or head-shakingly preoccupied with their wealth (which is never enough). . . . A well-told, personal representation of what's happened to real people in times of 'income stagnation, growing inequality, increasing economic instability, soaring debt, and rising costs.'"-- "Booklist" (7/1/2014 12:00:00 AM)

"Revelatory."--Helaine Olen "Pacific Standard" (1/5/2015 12:00:00 AM)

"Cooper's analysis is nuanced and incisive, her writing is clear and engaging, her reasoning is logical, and her conclusions are well justified. This book helps establish security in the suite of outcomes that concern those conducting research and teaching in the area of social inequality."-- "Gender and Society" (2/11/2015 12:00:00 AM)

"Cut Adrift could well serve as a guide and touchstone . . . for the many occasions on which scholars and activists explore the consequences of increasing inequality and uneven vulnerability to economic risk."-- "American Journal of Sociology (AJS)" (1/1/2016 12:00:00 AM)

About the Author

Marianne Cooper is a sociologist at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University and an affiliate at the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality. She was the lead researcher for Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg and is a contributor to LeanIn.org. She received her PhD in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley.