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Why Nothing Works: The Anthropology of Daily Life Updated Edition
Contributor(s): Harris, Marvin (Author)
ISBN: 0671635778     ISBN-13: 9780671635770
Publisher: Touchstone Books
OUR PRICE:   $16.10  
Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats
Published: January 1987
Qty:
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Sociology - General
- History | United States - 20th Century
- Social Science | Anthropology - Cultural & Social
Dewey: 973.92
LCCN: 86026100
Series: Touchstone Books (Paperback)
Physical Information: 0.59" H x 5.58" W x 8.52" (0.66 lbs) 224 pages
Themes:
- Chronological Period - 20th Century
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
This book is about cults, crime, and shoddy goods, and the shrinking dollar. It's about porno parlors, and sex shops, and men kissing in the streets. It's about daughters shaking up, women on the rampage, marriages postponed, divorces on the rise, and no one having kids. It's about old ladies getting mugged and raped, people shoved in front of trains, and shoot-outs at gas pumps. And letters that take weeks to get delivered, waiters who throw food at you, rude sales help, and computers that bill you for things you never bought. It's about broken benches, waterless fountains, cracked windows, dirty toilets, crater-filled roads, graffiti-covered buildings, slashed paintings, toppled statues, stolen books. It's about shoelaces that break in a week, bulbs that keep burning out, pens that won't write, cars that rust, stamps that don't stick, stitches that don't hold, buttons that pop off, zippers that jam, planes that lose their engines, reactors that leak, dams that burst, roofs that collapse... It's about astrologers, shamans, exorcists, witches, and angels in space suits... It's about a lot of other things that are new and strange in America today.

--from the Introduction