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3 books match the query 'Cherlin, Andrew J.'

cover of Labor's Love Lost: The Rise and Fall of the Working-Class Family in America

Labor's Love Lost

The Rise and Fall of the Working-Class Family in America

Andrew J. Cherlin is the Benjamin H. Griswold III Professor of Public Policy in the Department of Sociology at the Johns Hopkins University.

Russell Sage Foundation, 2014

Two generations ago, young men and women with only a high-school degree would have entered the plentiful industrial occupations which then sustained the middle-class ideal of a male-breadwinner family. Such jobs have all but vanished over the past forty years, and in their absence ever-growing numbers of young adults now hold precarious, low-paid jobs with few fringe benefits. Facing such insecure economic prospects, less-educated young adults are increasingly forgoing marriage and are having children within unstable cohabiting relationships. This has created a large marriage gap between them and their more affluent, college-educated peers. In Labor’s Love Lost, noted sociologist Andrew Cherlin offers a new historical assessment of the rise and fall of working-class families in America, demonstrating how momentous social and economic transformations have contributed to the collapse of this once-stable social class and what this seismic cultural shift means for the nation’s future. Drawing from more than a hundred years of census data, Cherlin documents how today’s marriage gap mirrors that of the Gilded Age of the late-nineteenth century, a time of high inequality much like our own. Cherlin demonstrates that the widespread prosperity of working-class families in the mid-twentieth century, when both income inequality and the marriage gap were low, is the true outlier in the history of the American family. In fact, changes in the economy, culture, and family formation in recent decades have been so great that Cherlin suggests that the working-class family pattern has largely disappeared. Labor's Love Lost shows that the primary problem of the fall of the working-class family from its mid-twentieth century peak is not that the male-breadwinner family has declined, but that nothing stable has replaced it. The breakdown of a stable family structure has serious consequences for low-income families, particularly for children, many of whom underperform in school, thereby reducing their future employment prospects and perpetuating an intergenerational cycle of economic disadvantage. To address this disparity, Cherlin recommends policies to foster educational opportunities for children and adolescents from disadvantaged families. He also stresses the need for labor market interventions, such as subsidizing low wages through tax credits and raising the minimum wage. Labor's Love Lost provides a compelling analysis of the historical dynamics and ramifications of the growing number of young adults disconnected from steady, decent-paying jobs and from marriage. Cherlin’s investigation of today’s “would-be working class” shines a much-needed spotlight on the struggling middle of our society in today’s new Gilded Age.
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cover of RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences: Beyond Deaths of Despair: New Research on the Health and Well-Being of Low- and Moderately-Educated Americans

RSF

The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences: Beyond Deaths of Despair: New Research on the Health and Well-Being of Low- and Moderately-Educated Americans

Anne Case

Russell Sage Foundation, 2026

The term “deaths of despair” was coined in 2015 by economists Anne Case and Agnus Deaton to describe the increasing mortality rate for White Americans without college degrees due to drug overdoses, suicide, and alcoholic liver disease. These deaths were attributed to the despondency experienced by the White working class, who were left behind by changes in the American economy. However, the mortality picture has changed since then. Mortality rates are now rising among both Black and White Americans without a college degree. Nearly all major causes of death are increasing more, or decreasing less, for people without college degrees. The educational gap in mortality has become so severe that, in 2021, adult life expectancy was more than eight years higher among college graduates. In this double issue of RSF, Case, Deaton, sociologist Andrew J. Cherlin, and an interdisciplinary group of contributors move beyond the concept of “deaths of despair” to explore the widening educational gap in mortality.

Issue 1 provides new perspectives on the education gap in mortality as well as new viewpoints on the non-college population. Christopher L. Foote and colleagues show that much of the educational gap in mortality may be due to smoking. One of the most popular explanations for the growing mortality gap is that college unlocks better job opportunities. However, Sam Arenberg and Sam Stripling find that what may matter for longer life expectancy is not so much having a “good” job as having a job at all, as high school dropouts with jobs have lower mortality rates than college graduates without them. Victor Tan Chen and colleagues reveal that people with opioid use disorders experience “precarity chains:” overlapping, connected hazards that combine to put people at increased risk of substance abuse.  

Issue 2 also gives new viewpoints on the non-college population and examines geographic and international variation in mortality. Grace Landrum-Hall and colleagues discover that men with health issues repeatedly enter and exit the formal labor force—referred to as “churning”—due to inflexible employer policies and income support program policies. Jennifer Karas Montez and colleagues show that rural areas and small cities have seen increases in mortality, while large urban areas have seen decreases. Iliya Gutin and colleagues find that the educational gap in health and wellbeing is typically larger in the U.S. than in Britian. This may be because education in the U.S.—and the resulting higher salaries—allows for more access to health-promoting resources.

This double issue of RSF provides fascinating insights into the stark and alarming mortality gap between those with and without a college degree in the U.S.

[more]
cover of RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences: Beyond Deaths of Despair: New Research on the Health and Well-Being of Low- and Moderately-Educated Americans

RSF

The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences: Beyond Deaths of Despair: New Research on the Health and Well-Being of Low- and Moderately-Educated Americans

Anne Case

Russell Sage Foundation, 2026

The term “deaths of despair” was coined in 2015 by economists Anne Case and Agnus Deaton to describe the increasing mortality rate for White Americans without college degrees due to drug overdoses, suicide, and alcoholic liver disease. These deaths were attributed to the despondency experienced by the White working class, who were left behind by changes in the American economy. However, the mortality picture has changed since then. Mortality rates are now rising among both Black and White Americans without a college degree. Nearly all major causes of death are increasing more, or decreasing less, for people without college degrees. The educational gap in mortality has become so severe that, in 2021, adult life expectancy was more than eight years higher among college graduates. In this double issue of RSF, Case, Deaton, sociologist Andrew J. Cherlin, and an interdisciplinary group of contributors move beyond the concept of “deaths of despair” to explore the widening educational gap in mortality.

Issue 1 provides new perspectives on the education gap in mortality as well as new viewpoints on the non-college population. Christopher L. Foote and colleagues show that much of the educational gap in mortality may be due to smoking. One of the most popular explanations for the growing mortality gap is that college unlocks better job opportunities. However, Sam Arenberg and Sam Stripling find that what may matter for longer life expectancy is not so much having a “good” job as having a job at all, as high school dropouts with jobs have lower mortality rates than college graduates without them. Victor Tan Chen and colleagues reveal that people with opioid use disorders experience “precarity chains:” overlapping, connected hazards that combine to put people at increased risk of substance abuse.  

Issue 2 also gives new viewpoints on the non-college population and examines geographic and international variation in mortality. Grace Landrum-Hall and colleagues discover that men with health issues repeatedly enter and exit the formal labor force—referred to as “churning”—due to inflexible employer policies and income support program policies. Jennifer Karas Montez and colleagues show that rural areas and small cities have seen increases in mortality, while large urban areas have seen decreases. Iliya Gutin and colleagues find that the educational gap in health and wellbeing is typically larger in the U.S. than in Britian. This may be because education in the U.S.—and the resulting higher salaries—allows for more access to health-promoting resources.

This double issue of RSF provides fascinating insights into the stark and alarming mortality gap between those with and without a college degree in the U.S.

[more]