{"product_id":"9780805080001","title":"The Road to Whatever: Middle-Class Culture and the Crisis of Adolescence","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn \"energetic,\" \"provocative,\" and \"much-needed\" investigation of the root causes of the epidemic of drug abuse, violence, and despair among middle-class American teenagers (\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e In this groundbreaking book, acclaimed sociologist and Pulitzer Prize finalist Elliott Currie draws on years of interviews to offer a profound investigation of what has gone wrong for so many \"mainstream\" American adolescents. Rejecting such predictable answers as TV violence, permissiveness, and inherent evil, Currie links this crisis to a pervasive \"culture of exclusion\" fostered by a society in which medications trump guidance and a punitive \"zero tolerance\" approach to adolescent misbehavior has become the norm. Broadening his inquiry, he dissects the changes in middle-class life that stratify the world into \"winners\" and \"losers,\" imposing an extraordinarily harsh culture—and not just on kids.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Vivid, compelling, and deeply empathetic, \u003ci\u003eThe Road to Whatever\u003c\/i\u003e is a stark indictment of a society that has lost the will—or the capacity—to care.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Picador","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47020438847728,"sku":"9780805080001","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780805080001_p0.jpg?v=1763813304","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780805080001","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}