Making a Life in Yorkville - (Controversies in Science) by Gerald Handel (Hardcover)

About the Book

Making a Life in Yorkville, based on the verbatim, unedited life-course narrative of an urban, working-class, middle-aged man, expands our understanding of the human life course beyond the currently dominant approaches. It presents a comprehensive and rounded life-course narrative of an ordinary man through a systematic analysis. By utilizing some established concepts and by formulating some new concepts, particularly relating childhood to adulthood and concepts related to how time is interpreted, Handel offers an advance both in methodology and in the theoretical approach to the study of the life course. Theoretically, the work falls broadly within the symbolic interactionist framework of sociological and social psychological thought. Methodologically, it argues for the careful study of the lives of ordinary people, people who are not celebrities or exotics, thus people who have no claim on public attention. This important new work will be a welcome addition to the literature on life course studies.

The first part of the book explores the idea of the life course in its various contexts: the community, the historical, the narrative, and the theoretical. The second part introduces and reproduces verbatim the life history of Tony Santangelo, an ordinary, working-class man. The third part discusses and analyzes the life history presented. Because most life histories are edited, this book, unique in its exact reproduction of the subject's narrative, makes it possible for the reader to use the information in the life history in ways different from Handel's use.

Book Synopsis

Making a Life in Yorkville, based on the verbatim, unedited life-course narrative of an urban, working-class, middle-aged man, expands our understanding of the human life course beyond the currently dominant approaches. It presents a comprehensive and rounded life-course narrative of an ordinary man through a systematic analysis. By utilizing some established concepts and by formulating some new concepts, particularly relating childhood to adulthood and concepts related to how time is interpreted, Handel offers an advance both in methodology and in the theoretical approach to the study of the life course. Theoretically, the work falls broadly within the symbolic interactionist framework of sociological and social psychological thought. Methodologically, it argues for the careful study of the lives of ordinary people, people who are not celebrities or exotics, thus people who have no claim on public attention. This important new work will be a welcome addition to the literature on life course studies.

The first part of the book explores the idea of the life course in its various contexts: the community, the historical, the narrative, and the theoretical. The second part introduces and reproduces verbatim the life history of Tony Santangelo, an ordinary, working-class man. The third part discusses and analyzes the life history presented. Because most life histories are edited, this book, unique in its exact reproduction of the subject's narrative, makes it possible for the reader to use the information in the life history in ways different from Handel's use.

Review Quotes

"Gerald Handel has written an interesting, insightful, and unusual book on the life course.... But the strength of the book, and its main value for students of the life course, is Handel's clear articulation and creative application of symbolic interactionism to understanding the life course. Handel does a masterful job of interpreting Santangelo's life story from a symbolic interactionist perspective guided by two general themes: continuity and change in the life course between childhood experiences and adult life; and how agency is expressed within social and historical constraints.... This book is a valuable and unique contribution to the growing sociological literature on the life course."-Viktor Gecas Professor of Sociology Washington State University

"Making a Life in Yorkville makes its mark by pushing the study of the life course out of its well worn rut and in an exciting new direction.... [it] gives readers a new appreciation of the factors and processes involved in making a life."-Spencer E. Cahill Associate Director of Interdisciplinary Studies Associate Professor of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences University of South Florida

.,."this is a valuable book. It contains a fascinating life history interview in its entirety."-Qualitative Sociology

?...this is a valuable book. It contains a fascinating life history interview in its entirety.?-Qualitative Sociology

?This book provides much to ponder, discuss, argue and analyze. It certainly could serve as a blueprint for other life-history analyses. Handel's concepts of sense of origin, sense of upbringing, perspective on childhood, sense of development, and experiencing the passage of time will fuel discussions around seminar tables for several years to come.?-Contemporary Sociology January 2002

..."this is a valuable book. It contains a fascinating life history interview in its entirety."-Qualitative Sociology

"This book provides much to ponder, discuss, argue and analyze. It certainly could serve as a blueprint for other life-history analyses. Handel's concepts of sense of origin, sense of upbringing, perspective on childhood, sense of development, and experiencing the passage of time will fuel discussions around seminar tables for several years to come."-Contemporary Sociology January 2002

About the Author

GERALD HANDEL is Professor of Sociology at The City College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Among his many published books, he was coeditor of The Apple Sliced: Sociological Studies of New York City (Praeger, 1983). He has also published many articles and book reviews.