Customer Reviews

Wrongs of Passage: Fraternities, Sororities, Hazing, and Binge Drinking

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I read "Wrongs of Passage" and I must say, it really made me think. As a former fraternity brother who engaged in certain activities that to this day I am not proud of, "Wrongs of Passage" forced me to re-evaluate some of my existing beliefs.

It brought me back and reminded me of the psychology of pledging. How it consumes you. Changes your life. It reminded me how as a fraternity pledge in the spring of 1991, nothing else mattered except getting in. Extrinsic problems, like my plummeting GPA meant nothing so long as I walked the proverbial "long road" to brotherhood.

It reminded me how at the time, being spoon fed nasty concoctions while blind folded and screamed at, was all fine and dandy. How being forced to do 100 pushups in a room that was so filled with smoke, you could barely breath was just part of what it took to pass that final test.

Hank Nuwer's exploration into the psycology of the pledge is so dead on. I found my self saying "Exactly" out loud more than a few times.

I could go on and on and on about this. I loved this book. It took me back to a place I haven't been to in a long time.

This book is a must read for anyone who has ever pledged, thought about pledging, or knows someone who has pledged a fraternity. Even if you don't fit into one of the above catagories, you will find "Wrongs of Passage" enthralling, engrossing, and especially, disturbing.

Having brought attention to the dangers of hazing in his first book Broken Pledges, Hank Nuwer expands on this work with Wrongs of Passage and makes another outstanding contribution to the literature on hazing. He elucidates the dangers of hazing from many angles, and while coining the term "greekthink," takes an important step in describing the often elusive dynamics which enable hazing to persist.

Wrongs of Passage is a commendable achievement and a valuable resource for students, parents, teachers, school administrators and others. Having first hand experience with hazing as a victim, perpetrator and anti-hazing educator, I gained yet another perspective by reading Wrongs of Passage. The knowledge and sensitivity that Hank Nuwer brings to the subject of hazing is unparalleled. I found his history of hazing enlightening, his first-hand accounts heart-wrenching and his strategies for change a sorely needed call to action. This is not a "fraternity-bashing" tirade but rather an in-depth analysis of hazing from multiple perspectives. Hank Nuwer shames those who continue to participate in hazing, and lauds those that have taken positive steps to eradicate these deadly practices. This book should be required reading by students, teachers, parents, and anyone who works with and cares about the future of our nation's youth.

If national fraternities and sororities are truly earnest about ending hazing, they should distribute this book to pledges along with their organizations' pledge manuals. Think about it, pledges subject themselves to hazing because they think they have to. Better yet, why not just do away with pledgeship altogether and boom! hazing is a thing of the past. It's a simple solution that would improve Greek Life and end the hazing deaths of young freshmen every year.

Having brought attention to the dangers of hazing in his first book Broken Pledges, Hank Nuwer expands on this work with Wrongs of Passage and makes another outstanding contribution to the literature on hazing. He elucidates the dangers of hazing from many angles, and while coining the term "greekthink," takes an important step in describing the often elusive dynamics which enable hazing to persist.

Wrongs of Passage is a commendable achievement and a valuable resource for students, parents, teachers, school administrators and others. Having first hand experience with hazing as a victim, perpetrator and anti-hazing educator, I gained yet another perspective by reading Wrongs of Passage. The knowledge and sensitivity that Hank Nuwer brings to the subject of hazing is unparalleled. I found his history of hazing enlightening, his first-hand accounts heart-wrenching and his strategies for change a sorely needed call to action. This is not a "fraternity-bashing" tirade but rather in in-depth analysis of hazing from multiple perspectives. Hank Nuwer shames those who continue to participate in hazing, and lauds those that have taken positive steps to eradicate these deadly practices. This book should be required reading by students, teachers, parents, and anyone who works with and cares about the future of our nation's youth.

This book should be appreciated for what it is, a collection of college hazing examples. It is written more like a reference book than anything else. There are many, many, stories about how Greek fraternity (and sorority) members died or were seriously injured in senseless hazing and prank incidents. The tales of idiotic jokes and barbaric rituals are disconcerting because you realize that people actually lost their lives over such trivial matters. But, what the book fails to do is to present a coherent picture of the hazing problem or a useful analysis of why it is so prevalent.

Read this book if you want examples and anecdotes about actual hazing incidents and a bibliography of further resources. There is also a 43 page appendix titled "A chronology of deaths" that exemplifies what the book really is, a reference guide. I imagine that anyone interested in this book realizes that hazing, hell weeks, and frat pranks are all malicious and senseless. I believe that Nuwer is doing a service by documenting these tragedies, but after the 50th story about a college kid drinking himself to death while his "friends" laugh and watch, the book gets redundant quickly.

Hank Nuwer, the author of this book, WAS in fact a member of a greek organization. Although he wouldn't reveal to me which one, it would explain to me how he knew so much about the inner workings of a fraternity. And, incidently, he is not against the abolition of fraternities either - so before you go off on someone next time, do a little research, it helps.

If the challenge is to Greeks to read about the horrors of hazing, I think it should from a different source. I am quite tired of non-Greeks painting fraternities and sororities as these black-hearted, behind-closed-doors operations. National Fraternities (to my experience, since I am male) generally have anti-hazing speeches before pledging and have the pledges sign vows that they will report hazing. This text focuses on the ugliness and mistakes of a few and generalizes it to the whole population. I think that the hazing described here is from our parents' past and not what goes on now. I am sick of groups of men and women who rally behind a few Greek letters getting more criticism than any similar group (eg. athletics teams) who don't have such letters. Hazing for sports teams is still rampant... don't blame the Greeks.

On a firsthand basis, I have experienced what it has been like to be a pledge and I have to say, many people mis-label and are deceived into thinking that all sororities and fraternities haze, and are into drinking/drugs. The California State University campus that I attend requires the rushees to sign a form stating that no hazing, drinking, or drugs will be involved with the recruitment process. I wasn't completely sure anyway, but they were right. At all of the houses we attended involved with the Panhellenic Council, (that forbids hazing, drinking, and drugs with recruitment), the other rushees and I were only greeted with smiles and friendly faces, waiting to be invited into the house of our choice. This is not saying that I do not believe hazing goes on anywhere, just that while looking into being a pledge, research what the process is all about, before you label sororities and fraternities as hazing, drinking, and drug parties.