Why Nothing Works: The Anthropology of Daily Life

"This book is about cults, crime, and shoddy goods, and the shrinking dollar....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....planes that lose their engines, reactors that leak, dams that burst, roofs that collapse....It's about a lot of other things that are new and strange in America today." --from the Introduction. SC, 208 pages.