Although most people think ""Generation X"" is a coined label for the post-Baby Boom generation, since the early 1950s the phrase has signified a seemingly identity-less group of young people trying to define themselves within an uncertain, even hostile world. Resituating the term in its neglected (sub)cultural context, this work offers a critical assessment of the ""Generation X"" phenomenon and its relation to the fashioning of different identities within and against the mainstream. Topics include punk subculture, the Internet, reality television, postmodernism, and alternative music.

Multiculturalism in the United States has been tricky for Jews. Remaining outside of the dominant Christian culture yet often excluded from multicultural agendas, Jews walk a precarious line--a narrow bridge--between dominance and marginality. Many Jews, aware of the shaky identity of Jewishness, are deeply involved in all levels of the multiculturalism debate. But there still exists a need for careful, reflective analysis of the importance and dangers of multiculturalism to the Jewish community. What is multiculturalism? What can it be to the Jews? What can the Jewish community learn from and contribute to the current debate?Through a collection of essays by scholars and activists whose writing ranges from the personal to the philosophical, The Narrow Bridge examines multiculturalism within and beyond the Jewish community. How does classism work within the Jewish community? How can synagogues reach out to gays and lesbians? How have tensions between Jews and Blacks developed historically and what can we learn from that history? How can we include Jewish studies in multicultural curricula? This timely collection of provocative articles makes fine use of these and other questions, offering us a look at where Jews have stood, where they now stand, and what they can hope for in the complex arena of multiculturalism.