"With Kinseyesque diligence [Moffatt] catalogues the sexual habits and fantasies of his students. . . . His book vibrates with quirky authenticity." --New York Times Book Review "Useful for understanding the student experience . . . throughout the United States. . . . Beautifully written, carefully researched . . . a classic."--John Thelin, Educational Studies "Michael Moffatt is a multitalented, multidisciplinary scholar . . . who writes without a trace of gobbledygook. He deserves a wide following." --Rupert Wilkinson, Journal of American Studies "One of the most thoughtfully crafted case studies of undergraduate culture . . . ever written . . . a book every professor should read." --Paul J. Baker, Academe Coming of Age is about college as students really know it and--often--love it. To write this remarkable account, Michael Moffatt did what anthropologists usually do in more distant cultures: he lived among the natives. His findings are sometimes disturbing, potentially controversial, but somehow very believable. Coming of Age is a vivid slice of life of what Moffatt saw and heard in the dorms of a typical state university, Rutgers, in the 1980s. It is full of student voices: naive and worldy-wise, vulgar and polite, cynical, humorous, and sometimes even idealistic. But it is also about American culture more generally: individualism, friendship, community, bureaucracy, diversity, race, sex, gender, intellect, work, and play. As an example of an ethnography written about an anthropologist's own culture, this book is an uncommon one. As a new and revealing perspective on the much-studied American college student, it is unique.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Anthropological Study of University Students,
By
This review is from: Coming of Age in New Jersey: College and American Culture (Paperback)
The author is a faculty member in the Anthropology department at Rutgers University who decided to do a study of the students in traditional immersion fashion. To do this, he joined the incoming freshman class as an older student returning to school and lived in the dorm. The resulting book is a fascinating read, particularly for someone who was actually entering college around the same time as Moffatt's study. Moffatt covers the group dynamics, the forming and shifting of groups, and many of the aspects of college life.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I couldn't put it down!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Coming of Age in New Jersey: College and American Culture (Paperback)
One of the few college texts I actually READ. Required for a freshman anthropology class (this is almost 8 years ago now), I was thrilled by every word in this book... Easy to read, interesting, entertaining... I mistakenly loaned it to someone who never gave it back and have regretted it ever since. A must read for anyone interested in a look at college culture through the eyes of someone doing it again, 20 years after graduation.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Incredible Book,
This review is from: Coming of Age in New Jersey: College and American Culture (Paperback)
Most books on "college kids" are nothing but anti-youth statistical messes. Moffat's generous phenomenological approach to the subject and refusal to make any broad generalizations make this book a truly amazing document. His analysis of "friendliness" as the dominant trope in American society, demonstrated in the micro-society of the dorm, is superb, as are his eye-opening conclusions about the trends that govern undergraduate sexuality.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
In 1977, on a whim, I decided to try passing as an overage, out-of-state freshman for the first few days of the fall semester at Rutgers College. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
wedgie patrol, experimentalist women, new sexual orthodoxy, coed dorm floors, floor friendliness, neotraditional women, modern college life, pickup sex, sophomore male, race and individualism, undergraduate writers, freshman male, undergraduate culture, white undergraduates, dorm residents, romantic men, sex with love, coed dorms, sexual fun, dorm lounge Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Hasbrouck Fourth, Erewhon Third, Secret Santa, Rutgers College, New Brunswick, United States, New Jersey, New York, Undergraduate Cynical, College Avenue Campus, Hasbrouck Hall, Erewhon Hall, Puerto Rican, Rutgers University, Gates Third, Frewhon Third, Gates Hall, Henry Street, Office of Institutional Research, Personal Map of Rutgers, World War New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
In 1977, on a whim, I decided to try passing as an overage, out-of-state freshman for the first few days of the fall semester at Rutgers College. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
wedgie patrol, experimentalist women, new sexual orthodoxy, coed dorm floors, floor friendliness, neotraditional women, modern college life, pickup sex, sophomore male, race and individualism, undergraduate writers, freshman male, undergraduate culture, white undergraduates, dorm residents, romantic men, sex with love, coed dorms, sexual fun, dorm lounge Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Hasbrouck Fourth, Erewhon Third, Secret Santa, Rutgers College, New Brunswick, United States, New Jersey, New York, Undergraduate Cynical, College Avenue Campus, Hasbrouck Hall, Erewhon Hall, Puerto Rican, Rutgers University, Gates Third, Frewhon Third, Gates Hall, Henry Street, Office of Institutional Research, Personal Map of Rutgers, World War New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 54
books:
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30
books
cite this book:
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- Campus Life: Undergraduate Cultures from the End of the Eighteenth Century to the Present by Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz on page 52, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Symbolizing America by Herve Varenne in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Number Our Days: A Triumph of Continuity and Culture Among Jewish Old People in an Urban Ghetto by Barbara Myerhoff on page 23, and Back Matter
- The Harrad Experiment: Special 25th Anniversary Edition with a New Afterword and Bibliography by the by Robert H. Rimmer on page 232, and Back Matter
See all 54 books this book cites
- Higher Learning in America, 1980-2000 by Arthur Levine on page 216, and page 235
- Higher Learning in America, 1980-2000 by Professor Arthur Levine on page 210, and page 229
- After Pomp and Circumstance: High School Reunion as an Autobiographical Occasion by Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- After Pomp and Circumstance: High School Reunion as an Autobiographical Occasion by Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Money, Morals, and Manners: The Culture of the French and the American Upper-Middle Class (Morality and Society Series) by Michele Lamont in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 30 books citing this book
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