Author: Helena Lopata
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351471554
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 382
Book Description
Widowhood in an American City focuses on the roles and lifestyles of urban American widows fifty years of age or older. These women form a segment of two generations of one society; they present a historical instance of people born and brought up under conditions that are not likely to be duplicated. Not only the U.S., but many other countries are undergoing modifications in the degrees and forms of urbanization, industrialization, and social complexity.Helena Znaniecki Lopata argues that the way women re-engage society following the death of a husband is different due to their location in the modern social system. She notes that the trends in social structure are toward increasingly voluntaristic engagement in achieved, functionally oriented social roles that are performed in large groups and contain secondary social relations. The cultural background of many societal members prevents the utilization of most resources of the complex urban world, restricting them to a small social life space, with almost automatically prescribed social relations.Those who argue that the elderly are socially isolated contend that this is a result of the natural process of withdrawal of the person and the society from each other. These arguments focus on those who are isolated or lonely and those who lack the skills, money, health, and transportation for engaging or re-engaging society. Lopata's study indicates that this assumption is false for many widows. If such people are to be helped, a fresh view of the relation between the urban, industrial, and complex modern world and its residents is required, and new action programs must be creatively developed. This is a timely, ground-breaking work that addresses and shatters common myths associated with growing old alone in an urban society.
Widowhood in an American City
Author: Helena Lopata
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351471554
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 382
Book Description
Widowhood in an American City focuses on the roles and lifestyles of urban American widows fifty years of age or older. These women form a segment of two generations of one society; they present a historical instance of people born and brought up under conditions that are not likely to be duplicated. Not only the U.S., but many other countries are undergoing modifications in the degrees and forms of urbanization, industrialization, and social complexity.Helena Znaniecki Lopata argues that the way women re-engage society following the death of a husband is different due to their location in the modern social system. She notes that the trends in social structure are toward increasingly voluntaristic engagement in achieved, functionally oriented social roles that are performed in large groups and contain secondary social relations. The cultural background of many societal members prevents the utilization of most resources of the complex urban world, restricting them to a small social life space, with almost automatically prescribed social relations.Those who argue that the elderly are socially isolated contend that this is a result of the natural process of withdrawal of the person and the society from each other. These arguments focus on those who are isolated or lonely and those who lack the skills, money, health, and transportation for engaging or re-engaging society. Lopata's study indicates that this assumption is false for many widows. If such people are to be helped, a fresh view of the relation between the urban, industrial, and complex modern world and its residents is required, and new action programs must be creatively developed. This is a timely, ground-breaking work that addresses and shatters common myths associated with growing old alone in an urban society.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351471554
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 382
Book Description
Widowhood in an American City focuses on the roles and lifestyles of urban American widows fifty years of age or older. These women form a segment of two generations of one society; they present a historical instance of people born and brought up under conditions that are not likely to be duplicated. Not only the U.S., but many other countries are undergoing modifications in the degrees and forms of urbanization, industrialization, and social complexity.Helena Znaniecki Lopata argues that the way women re-engage society following the death of a husband is different due to their location in the modern social system. She notes that the trends in social structure are toward increasingly voluntaristic engagement in achieved, functionally oriented social roles that are performed in large groups and contain secondary social relations. The cultural background of many societal members prevents the utilization of most resources of the complex urban world, restricting them to a small social life space, with almost automatically prescribed social relations.Those who argue that the elderly are socially isolated contend that this is a result of the natural process of withdrawal of the person and the society from each other. These arguments focus on those who are isolated or lonely and those who lack the skills, money, health, and transportation for engaging or re-engaging society. Lopata's study indicates that this assumption is false for many widows. If such people are to be helped, a fresh view of the relation between the urban, industrial, and complex modern world and its residents is required, and new action programs must be creatively developed. This is a timely, ground-breaking work that addresses and shatters common myths associated with growing old alone in an urban society.
A Widow's Story
Author: Joyce Carol Oates
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062082639
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 479
Book Description
Unlike anything Joyce Carol Oates has written before, A Widow’s Story is the universally acclaimed author’s poignant, intimate memoir about the unexpected death of Raymond Smith, her husband of forty-six years, and its wrenching, surprising aftermath. A recent recipient of National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, Oates, whose novels (Blonde, The Gravedigger’s Daughter, Little Bird of Heaven, etc.) rank among the very finest in contemporary American fiction, offers an achingly personal story of love and loss. A Widow’s Story is a literary memoir on a par with The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion and Calvin Trillin’s About Alice.
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062082639
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 479
Book Description
Unlike anything Joyce Carol Oates has written before, A Widow’s Story is the universally acclaimed author’s poignant, intimate memoir about the unexpected death of Raymond Smith, her husband of forty-six years, and its wrenching, surprising aftermath. A recent recipient of National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, Oates, whose novels (Blonde, The Gravedigger’s Daughter, Little Bird of Heaven, etc.) rank among the very finest in contemporary American fiction, offers an achingly personal story of love and loss. A Widow’s Story is a literary memoir on a par with The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion and Calvin Trillin’s About Alice.
Praisesong for the Widow
Author: Paule Marshall
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0452267110
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 257
Book Description
From the acclaimed author of Daughters and Brown Girl, Brownstones comes a “work of exceptional wisdom, maturity, and generosity, one in which the palpable humanity of its characters transcends any considerations of race or sex”(Washington Post Book World). Avey Johnson—a black, middle-aged, middle-class widow given to hats, gloves, and pearls—has long since put behind her the Harlem of her childhood. Then on a cruise to the Caribbean with two friends, inspired by a troubling dream, she senses her life beginning to unravel—and in a panic packs her bag in the middle of the night and abandons her friends at the next port of call. The unexpected and beautiful adventure that follows provides Avey with the links to the culture and history she has so long disavowed. “Astonishingly moving.”—Anne Tyler, The New York Times Book Review
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0452267110
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 257
Book Description
From the acclaimed author of Daughters and Brown Girl, Brownstones comes a “work of exceptional wisdom, maturity, and generosity, one in which the palpable humanity of its characters transcends any considerations of race or sex”(Washington Post Book World). Avey Johnson—a black, middle-aged, middle-class widow given to hats, gloves, and pearls—has long since put behind her the Harlem of her childhood. Then on a cruise to the Caribbean with two friends, inspired by a troubling dream, she senses her life beginning to unravel—and in a panic packs her bag in the middle of the night and abandons her friends at the next port of call. The unexpected and beautiful adventure that follows provides Avey with the links to the culture and history she has so long disavowed. “Astonishingly moving.”—Anne Tyler, The New York Times Book Review
A Widow's Walk
Author: Marian Fontana
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439128367
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 56
Book Description
On September 11, I dropped my son off at his second full day of kindergarten. The sky was so blue it looked as if it had been ironed. I crossed the street, ordered coffee, and sat to wait for my husband to meet me. It was our eighth wedding anniversary and Dave and I were about to begin a new chapter in our seventeen years together. Sipping coffee, I watched as a line of thick black smoke crept across the sky from Manhattan, oblivious to the fact that my life was about to change forever. On September 11, 2001, Marian Fontana lost her husband, Dave, a firefighter from the elite Squad 1 in Brooklyn, in the World Trade Center attack. A Widow's Walk begins that fateful morning, when Marian, a playwright and comedienne, became a widow, a single mother, and an unlikely activist. Two weeks after 9/11, the city attempted to close Squad 1, which had suffered the loss of twelve men. Known for her feisty spirit and passionate loyalty, Marian, who was still reeling from her profound loss, began to mobilize the neighborhood to keep the firehouse open. From this unlikely platform the 9/11 Widows and Victims' Families Association grew. Over the next twelve months, Marian struggled with the tragedy's endless ripple effects, from the minute and deeply personal—she wonders who will play Star Wars with her son, Aidan, and carry him on his shoulders; to the collective: she works to get families and widows necessary information about the recovery effort and attends private meetings with Governor Pataki, Mayor Giuliani, Senator Clinton, and Mayor Bloomberg. Through it all, Marian's irrepressible humor is her best armor, as well as evidence of her buoyant strength. Written with great heart and humanity, A Widow's Walk is a timely opportunity for remembrance and a timeless testament to love's loss and the resilience of the human spirit.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439128367
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 56
Book Description
On September 11, I dropped my son off at his second full day of kindergarten. The sky was so blue it looked as if it had been ironed. I crossed the street, ordered coffee, and sat to wait for my husband to meet me. It was our eighth wedding anniversary and Dave and I were about to begin a new chapter in our seventeen years together. Sipping coffee, I watched as a line of thick black smoke crept across the sky from Manhattan, oblivious to the fact that my life was about to change forever. On September 11, 2001, Marian Fontana lost her husband, Dave, a firefighter from the elite Squad 1 in Brooklyn, in the World Trade Center attack. A Widow's Walk begins that fateful morning, when Marian, a playwright and comedienne, became a widow, a single mother, and an unlikely activist. Two weeks after 9/11, the city attempted to close Squad 1, which had suffered the loss of twelve men. Known for her feisty spirit and passionate loyalty, Marian, who was still reeling from her profound loss, began to mobilize the neighborhood to keep the firehouse open. From this unlikely platform the 9/11 Widows and Victims' Families Association grew. Over the next twelve months, Marian struggled with the tragedy's endless ripple effects, from the minute and deeply personal—she wonders who will play Star Wars with her son, Aidan, and carry him on his shoulders; to the collective: she works to get families and widows necessary information about the recovery effort and attends private meetings with Governor Pataki, Mayor Giuliani, Senator Clinton, and Mayor Bloomberg. Through it all, Marian's irrepressible humor is her best armor, as well as evidence of her buoyant strength. Written with great heart and humanity, A Widow's Walk is a timely opportunity for remembrance and a timeless testament to love's loss and the resilience of the human spirit.
Widows: North America
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Widows
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
What happens whene the husband dies depends on the society, on the location of the widow in urban-rural or class terms, and on the widow's own personal resources. In some societies the woman is totally dependent upon a grown son and cannot remarry; in others, such as that in the United States, she is more dependent upon her own resouces and wishes. For some, widowhood results in a great loss of status; for others, it can mean loneliness and social isolation. Yet widowhood can mean greater social freedom for some women, a "blooming of personality. Even grief is experienced in various ways and degrees. Thus there is no such thing as a "widow type," only a great heterogenity in widowhood, as in "wifehood." Volume I analyzes the support systems and life-styles of widows in Australia, the Philippines, Korea, Iran, China, a Pacific island, India, Turkey, and Israel. Volume II : North America examines two communities in Canada, a Florida retirement community, and communities in several other locations, as well as the relative situations of homeowners, blacks, and poor ethnic populations.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Widows
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
What happens whene the husband dies depends on the society, on the location of the widow in urban-rural or class terms, and on the widow's own personal resources. In some societies the woman is totally dependent upon a grown son and cannot remarry; in others, such as that in the United States, she is more dependent upon her own resouces and wishes. For some, widowhood results in a great loss of status; for others, it can mean loneliness and social isolation. Yet widowhood can mean greater social freedom for some women, a "blooming of personality. Even grief is experienced in various ways and degrees. Thus there is no such thing as a "widow type," only a great heterogenity in widowhood, as in "wifehood." Volume I analyzes the support systems and life-styles of widows in Australia, the Philippines, Korea, Iran, China, a Pacific island, India, Turkey, and Israel. Volume II : North America examines two communities in Canada, a Florida retirement community, and communities in several other locations, as well as the relative situations of homeowners, blacks, and poor ethnic populations.
Handbook of the Sociology of Gender
Author: Janet Saltzman Chafetz
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387362185
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 626
Book Description
During the past three decades, feminist scholars have successfully demonstrated the ubiq uity and omnirelevance of gender as a sociocultural construction in virtually all human collectivities, past and present. Intrapsychic, interactional, and collective social processes are gendered, as are micro, meso, and macro social structures. Gender shapes, and is shaped, in all arenas of social life, from the most mundane practices of everyday life to those of the most powerful corporate actors. Contemporary understandings of gender emanate from a large community of primarily feminist scholars that spans the gamut of learned disciplines and also includes non-academic activist thinkers. However, while in corporating some cross-disciplinary material, this volume focuses specifically on socio logical theories and research concerning gender, which are discussed across the full array of social processes, structures, and institutions. As editor, I have explicitly tried to shape the contributions to this volume along several lines that reflect my long-standing views about sociology in general, and gender sociology in particular. First, I asked authors to include cross-national and historical material as much as possible. This request reflects my belief that understanding and evaluating the here-and-now and working realistically for a better future can only be accomplished from a comparative perspective. Too often, American sociology has been both tempero- and ethnocentric. Second, I have asked authors to be sensitive to within-gender differences along class, racial/ethnic, sexual preference, and age cohort lines.
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387362185
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 626
Book Description
During the past three decades, feminist scholars have successfully demonstrated the ubiq uity and omnirelevance of gender as a sociocultural construction in virtually all human collectivities, past and present. Intrapsychic, interactional, and collective social processes are gendered, as are micro, meso, and macro social structures. Gender shapes, and is shaped, in all arenas of social life, from the most mundane practices of everyday life to those of the most powerful corporate actors. Contemporary understandings of gender emanate from a large community of primarily feminist scholars that spans the gamut of learned disciplines and also includes non-academic activist thinkers. However, while in corporating some cross-disciplinary material, this volume focuses specifically on socio logical theories and research concerning gender, which are discussed across the full array of social processes, structures, and institutions. As editor, I have explicitly tried to shape the contributions to this volume along several lines that reflect my long-standing views about sociology in general, and gender sociology in particular. First, I asked authors to include cross-national and historical material as much as possible. This request reflects my belief that understanding and evaluating the here-and-now and working realistically for a better future can only be accomplished from a comparative perspective. Too often, American sociology has been both tempero- and ethnocentric. Second, I have asked authors to be sensitive to within-gender differences along class, racial/ethnic, sexual preference, and age cohort lines.
Growing Old in America
Author: Beth B. Hess
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 9780878557882
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 622
Book Description
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 9780878557882
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 622
Book Description
Widowhood
Author: Michael Rock
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
ISBN: 1412024528
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 330
Book Description
Provides professional and personal insight into dying and death, and includes stories of men and women who learned to accept and deal with the loss of their spouses.
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
ISBN: 1412024528
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 330
Book Description
Provides professional and personal insight into dying and death, and includes stories of men and women who learned to accept and deal with the loss of their spouses.
The Wicked City
Author: Beatriz Williams
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062405039
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 307
Book Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of A Certain Age, a deliciously spicy new Jazz Age adventure and the first book of a breathtaking new trilogy by bestselling author Beatriz Williams. Two generations of women are brought together inside a Greenwich Village apartment —a flapper hiding an extraordinary past, and a modern-day Manattanite forced to start her life anew. When she discovers her banker husband has been harboring a secret life, Ella Gilbert escapes her SoHo loft for a studio in Greenwich Village. Her charismatic musician neighbor, Hector, warns her to stay out of the basement after midnight, when a symphony of mysterious noise strikes up—laughter, clinking glasses, jazz piano, the occasional bloodcurdling scream—even though the space has been empty for decades. Back in the Roaring Twenties, the basement was home to one of the city’s most notorious speakeasies. In 1924, Geneva “Gin” Kelly, a quick-witted flapper from the hills of western Maryland, is a regular at this Village hideaway. Caught up in a raid, Gin lands in the office of Prohibition enforcement agent Oliver Anson, who persuades her to help him catch her stepfather, Duke Kelly, one of the biggest bootleggers in Appalachia. But Gin is nobody’s fool. She strikes a risky bargain with the taciturn, straight-arrow Revenue agent, and their alliance rattles Manhattan society to its foundations, exposing secrets that shock even this free-spirited redhead. As Ella unravels the strange history of her new building—and the family thread that connects her to Geneva Kelly—she senses the Jazz Age spirit of her exuberant predecessor invading her own shy nature, in ways that will transform her existence in the wicked city.
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062405039
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 307
Book Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of A Certain Age, a deliciously spicy new Jazz Age adventure and the first book of a breathtaking new trilogy by bestselling author Beatriz Williams. Two generations of women are brought together inside a Greenwich Village apartment —a flapper hiding an extraordinary past, and a modern-day Manattanite forced to start her life anew. When she discovers her banker husband has been harboring a secret life, Ella Gilbert escapes her SoHo loft for a studio in Greenwich Village. Her charismatic musician neighbor, Hector, warns her to stay out of the basement after midnight, when a symphony of mysterious noise strikes up—laughter, clinking glasses, jazz piano, the occasional bloodcurdling scream—even though the space has been empty for decades. Back in the Roaring Twenties, the basement was home to one of the city’s most notorious speakeasies. In 1924, Geneva “Gin” Kelly, a quick-witted flapper from the hills of western Maryland, is a regular at this Village hideaway. Caught up in a raid, Gin lands in the office of Prohibition enforcement agent Oliver Anson, who persuades her to help him catch her stepfather, Duke Kelly, one of the biggest bootleggers in Appalachia. But Gin is nobody’s fool. She strikes a risky bargain with the taciturn, straight-arrow Revenue agent, and their alliance rattles Manhattan society to its foundations, exposing secrets that shock even this free-spirited redhead. As Ella unravels the strange history of her new building—and the family thread that connects her to Geneva Kelly—she senses the Jazz Age spirit of her exuberant predecessor invading her own shy nature, in ways that will transform her existence in the wicked city.
Widows and Orphans First
Author: S. J. Kleinberg
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252091639
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 251
Book Description
The experiences of widows and their children during the Progressive Era and the New Deal depended on differences in local economies and values. How did these widely varied experiences impact the origins of the welfare state? S. J. Kleinberg delves into the question by comparing widows' lives in three industrial cities with differing economic, ethnic, and racial bases. Government in Fall River, Massachusetts, saw employment as a solution to widows' poverty and as a result drastically limited public charity. In Pittsburgh, widows received sympathetic treatment. Few jobs existed for them or their children; indeed, the jobs for men were concentrated in "widowmaking" industries like steel and railroading. With a large African American population and a diverse economy that relied on inexpensive child and female labor, Baltimore limited funds for public services. African Americans adapted by establishing their own charitable institutions. A fascinating comparative study, Widows and Orphans First offers a one-of-a-kind look at social welfare policy for widows and the role of children in society during a pivotal time in American history.
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252091639
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 251
Book Description
The experiences of widows and their children during the Progressive Era and the New Deal depended on differences in local economies and values. How did these widely varied experiences impact the origins of the welfare state? S. J. Kleinberg delves into the question by comparing widows' lives in three industrial cities with differing economic, ethnic, and racial bases. Government in Fall River, Massachusetts, saw employment as a solution to widows' poverty and as a result drastically limited public charity. In Pittsburgh, widows received sympathetic treatment. Few jobs existed for them or their children; indeed, the jobs for men were concentrated in "widowmaking" industries like steel and railroading. With a large African American population and a diverse economy that relied on inexpensive child and female labor, Baltimore limited funds for public services. African Americans adapted by establishing their own charitable institutions. A fascinating comparative study, Widows and Orphans First offers a one-of-a-kind look at social welfare policy for widows and the role of children in society during a pivotal time in American history.