Our Kids: On the Book of R. D. Putnam

Abstract

In Our Kids Robert D. Putnam presents a series of portraits of the contrasting lives of young Americans from more and less privileged backgrounds, putting considerable emphasis on the issues of marriage, families and parenting, school system and the matters of educational segregation, neighborhood separation and delinquency, thereby he illustrates the constantly growing social inequalities between rich and poor kids. By recalling his own adolescence, exploring and interviewing his high school classmates, and considering opportunities of their and other’s social advancement, Putnam and his colleagues compare the social and economic conditions and the opportunity of upward mobility of poor kids in the Gilded Ages of the United States with the contemporary socioeconomic circumstances and future prospects.