Respect in a World of Inequality (Hardcover)

by Richard Sennett (Author) "Early in the last century, poor American blacks began to escape the serfdom of the rural South by moving to cities up North..." (more)
Key Phrases: glass wars, social honor, craft labor, Mother Cabrini, New York, Jane Addams (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Novelist and sociologist Sennett (The Corrosion of Character) offers an unusual, well-intentioned, but frustratingly vague series of essays on fostering respect across barriers of social inequality. To tackle his subject, Sennett, who is affiliated with the London School of Economics and New York University, combines personal memoir, sociology, and deep reading in history and the social sciences. The first chapter is the best: a personal memoir of growing up poor and white in Chicago's Cabrini Green housing project, with a reminiscence of a "glass war," a game in which black and white children throw broken glass at each other; of becoming a proficient cello player only to lose his musical career to a hand injury; and of his early experiences as a sociologist. These stories vividly illustrate how difficult it is to respect oneself and others, particularly given race and class differences. But the rest of the book is too abstract and meandering to provide either sharp analysis or clear proposals. Sennett explores the meaning of the term "respect" and performs an inconclusive "inquest" on three ways of earning it: "make something of yourself, take care of yourself, help others." He argues against the current view that welfare bureaucracies should be dismantled and suggests ways in which the "relationship between society and character" might "lead people to treat each other with mutual respect." Throughout, Sennett's ideas seem tentative, in keeping with his stated view of this volume as an "experiment" providing neither "practical policies... nor a full-blown autobiography." The concluding section is headed "Instead of a Conclusion," and there are times when it seems he has written something instead of a book. Still, his efforts, while incomplete, succeed in provoking thought on a worthy subject.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The author, a noted sociologist, grew up in Cabrini Green, a Chicago housing project. In this mixture of memoir and analysis, which began as a rather more limited study of the welfare system, Sennett explores the notion of respect--specifically, mutual respect. He begins by identifying several elements of respect (status, prestige, recognition) and moves smoothly into a discussion of three fundamental factors that weaken mutual respect: unequal talent (Do we give too much weight to someone's ability to do something special?), dependence on others (we somehow construe dependency as shameful), and hurtful compassion (some forms seem morally self-serving). His analysis leads him to propose a new kind of society, one that accepts that people are unequal, that some of us are more talented, or more compassionate, or more dependent on others--a society that, through mutual respect, encourages everyone to become the best person he or she can be. Not a manifesto, not a diatribe, and--thankfully--not a mind-numbing self-help book, this is a carefully reasoned, insightful look at a subject that is too little understood. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (January 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393051269
• ISBN-13: 978-0393051261
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,091,934 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Distinct Piece of Scholarship, February 11, 2006

By	M. Salahuddin "NEW YORKER" (NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When a "customer" of this book (not a "reader", for sure) can make a comment and leave it on Amazon labeled as the so-called "review", I think that a unique example of 'free speech'! It seems we have the right to say almost anything about a book we may not be educated enough to read or understand it.

2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Misguided view of respect, March 3, 2008

By	Charles E. Breiling "ReformK12.com" (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Respect in a World of Inequality (Paperback)

To put it bluntly, this entire book can be refuted in one three word sentence: "Respect is EARNED."

Sennett seems to think that the world would be a better place if we simply had mutual respect for one another. And he's right. Unfortunately we can't "make" people have respect for anything or anyone, so what you end up with is a one-sided agreement.

It's a bit like waging peace with only one army laying down its weapons. Anyone with a whit of common sense knows what happens next.

I did enjoy his tales of growing up, even if it seems he took all the wrong lessons from those moments in his life when he could have gotten a little more of a realistic view of how the world works, and where REAL respect comes from: it is earned. Wishing for respect doesn't produce it, you have to do the thankless labor of earning it on your own.

5 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Please, Stop Putting Me To Sleep!, December 4, 2005

By	H. Seymour "recruiter" (Hood River, OR United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Respect in a World of Inequality (Paperback)

I had to read this book for a diversity class. Sennett uses language and sentence construction that is overly ostentatious and difficult to understand. Inside this fat book is a very thin book trying to get out. He needed a good editor.