View the Table of Contents. Read the Chapter One.
"All of the entries are well written and should intrigue a broad
range of students because they run the gamut from the very academic
to the more popularly written. . . . Overall this is an enjoyable
collection that does a great deal to put to rest Emile Durkheimas
assumption of a close, positive correlation between the occurrence
of and participation in holidays and societal integration."
--"Choice"
"[P]rovides readers with a deeper insight into the ways in which
holidays have been used and misused throughout American history. We
learn of how Americans come together on their special days and how
those days, sometimes, reveal social strains. A necessary volume
for anyone who cares about how Americans reveal community and
perform civic obligation."
--Gary Alan Fine, author of "Difficult Reputations: Collective
Memories of the Evil, Inept, and Controversial"
"Fascinating in what it says about the holidays as mechanisms of
socialization, prisms through which identity can be refracted, even
changed."
--"Chicago Tribune ""[A] new and welcome framework for
understanding the meanings of holidays in our multi-cultural
society. Any simple explanation of even the most familiar
celebrations will be challenged in reading this wide-ranging
collection."
--Penne L. Restad, author of "Christmas in America: A History"
"[O]ffers an effervescent mix of sociological and historical
reflections on the state of holidays and rituals in American
culture."
--Leigh E. Schmidt, author of "Consumer Rites: The Buying and
Selling of American Holidays"
How did Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday become a national
holiday? Why do we exchangepresents on Christmas and Chanukah? What
do bunnies have to do with Easter? How did Earth Day become a
global holiday? These questions and more are answered in this
fascinating exploration into the history and meaning of holidays
and rituals. Edited by Amitai Etzioni, one of the most influential
social and political thinkers of our time, this collection provides
a compelling overview of the impact that holidays and rituals have
on our family and communal life.
From community solidarity to ethnic relations to religious
traditions, We Are What We Celebrate argues that holidays such as
Halloween, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, New Year's Eve, and
Valentine's Day play an important role in reinforcing, and
sometimes redefining, our values as a society. The collection
brings together classic and original essays that, for the first
time, offer a comprehensive overview and analysis of the important
role such celebrations play in maintaining a moral order as well as
in cementing family bonds, building community relations and
creating national identity. The essays cover such topics as the
creation of Thanksgiving as a national holiday; the importance of
holidays for children; the mainstreaming of Kwanzaa; and the
controversy over Columbus Day celebrations.
Compelling and often surprising, this look at holidays and
rituals brings new meaning to not just the ways we celebrate but to
what those celebrations tell us about ourselves and our
communities.
Contributors: Theodore Caplow, Gary Cross, Matthew Dennis,
Amitai Etzioni, John R. Gillis, Ellen M. Litwicki, Diana Muir,
Francesca Polletta, Elizabeth H. Pleck, David E. Proctor, Mary F.
Whiteside, and Anna Day Wilde.
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