When Bad Things Happen to Privileged People - by Dara Z Strolovitch (Hardcover)

About the Book

"From the climate crisis to the opioid crisis to the Coronavirus crisis, the language of crisis is everywhere around us and ubiquitous in contemporary American politics and policymaking. But for every problem that political actors describe as a crisis, there are myriad other equally serious ones that are not described in this way. Why has the term crisis been associated with some problems but not others? What has crisis come to mean, and what work does it do? In When Bad Things Happen to Privileged People, Dara Z. Strolovitch brings a critical eye to the taken-for-granted political vernacular of crisis. Using systematic analyses to trace the evolution of the use of the term crisis by both political elites and outsiders, Strolovitch unpacks the idea of "crisis" in contemporary politics and demonstrates that crisis is itself an operation of politics. She shows that racial justice activists innovated the language of crisis in an effort to transform racism from something understood as natural and intractable and to cast it instead as a policy problem that could be remedied. Dominant political actors later seized on the language of crisis to compel the use of state power, but often in ways that compounded rather than alleviated inequality and injustice. In this eye-opening and important book, Strolovitch demonstrates that understanding crisis politics is key to understanding the politics of racial, gender, and class inequalities in the early twenty-first century"--

Book Synopsis

Named one of Choice's "Outstanding Academic Titles of 2024"

A deep and thought-provoking examination of crisis politics and their implications for power and marginalization in the United States.

From the climate crisis to the opioid crisis to the Coronavirus crisis, the language of crisis is everywhere around us and ubiquitous in contemporary American politics and policymaking. But for every problem that political actors describe as a crisis, there are myriad other equally serious ones that are not described in this way. Why has the term crisis been associated with some problems but not others? What has crisis come to mean, and what work does it do?

In When Bad Things Happen to Privileged People, Dara Z. Strolovitch brings a critical eye to the taken-for-granted political vernacular of crisis. Using systematic analyses to trace the evolution of the use of the term crisis by both political elites and outsiders, Strolovitch unpacks the idea of "crisis" in contemporary politics and demonstrates that crisis is itself an operation of politics. She shows that racial justice activists innovated the language of crisis in an effort to transform racism from something understood as natural and intractable and to cast it instead as a policy problem that could be remedied. Dominant political actors later seized on the language of crisis to compel the use of state power, but often in ways that compounded rather than alleviated inequality and injustice. In this eye-opening and important book, Strolovitch demonstrates that understanding crisis politics is key to understanding the politics of racial, gender, and class inequalities in the early twenty-first century.

Review Quotes

"When Bad Things Happen to Privileged People is a powerful examination of crisis construction and of the ramifications of crisis politics for both advantaged and disadvantaged groups. Strolovitch brilliantly develops her distinctive vision for a more meaningful and just American democracy, while covering exciting new terrain that has been almost entirely ignored by political scientists."--Paul Frymer author of "Building an American Empire: The Era of Territorial and Political Expansion"

"[An] insightful examination of the role crisis politics have come to play in structuring American political discourse and processes. . . .a compelling and comprehensive piece of scholarship addressing both timely and timeless issues in U.S. politics."-- "Gender & Society"

"In her book, When Bad Things Happen to Privileged People: Race, Gender, and What Makes a Crisis in America, Strolovitch examines how politicians construct and exploit the idea that an event or problem is a "crisis" to justify using state power and resources to address it. As [Strolovitch] explains, they are most likely to declare and treat something as a crisis when persistent issues that mostly impact marginalized communities begin to affect more privileged and dominant groups. The book was this year's co-winner of the American Political Science Association's Race, Ethnicity, and Politics' Best Book Award."-- "Yale Institution for Social and Policy Studies"

"Strolovitch builds a strong case for how privileged communities use and usurp true crises in marginalized communities to gain resourced and power. This is a must read for students of economics, public policy, race relations, political science, and sociology."-- "Choice"

"[A] fascinating and timely new book. . . .Strolovitch treats the term 'crisis' as a 'keyword' a type of word that has its meaning shaped by social and political processes as well as a word that's political meaning imbues power. That power includes when it's used as well as when it's not."--Heath Brown "3Streams"

"Strolovitch's study is a meticulous and timely reminder that crises are neither natural occurrences nor neutral in how they direct action in a context marked by longstanding inequalities. Crises, instead, are political constructions. From housing and unemployment to policing and public health, this groundbreaking book will transform our thinking about the crises that have dominated public attention over the last few decades."--Chloe Thurston author of "At the Boundaries of Homeownership: Credit, Discrimination and the American State"

"This is a sharp and much needed intervention in how political science conceptualises and applies the idea of 'crisis' to moments of upheaval, uncertainty and transformation. As Strolovitch persuasively argues, a crisis is not quite what it seems. Those marganlized groups, for whom misfortune is a policy goal, do not necessarily experience crises. Instead, crisis, like much else in American political life, is reserved for those powerful groups who must be protected from life's vagaries."--Akwugo Emejulu author of "Fugitive Feminism"

"The evidence that Strolovitch marshalls is wide-ranging, spanning sources from newspapers to organizational players to congress and the presidency. The time span and grasp of history is extremely impressive with writing that is accessible and fluid."--Leslie McCall The Graduate Center, City University of New York

"Strolovitch conducts an exhaustive rhetorical analysis of crisis in well-selected print sources that incorporate both media and government, carving out distinctive territory in its direct focus on the rhetoric of crisis in politics."--Julie Novkov University at Albany, SUNY

About the Author

Dara Z. Strolovitch is professor of women's, gender, and sexuality studies, American studies, and political science at Yale University, and she is coeditor of the American Political Science Review. She is the author of Affirmative Advocacy: Race, Class, and Gender in Interest Group Politics, also published by the University of Chicago Press.