This is a novel about appearance versus reality – how our lives and relationships appear to others versus how they are experienced, and the complex ways that social class shapes identity, relationships, and the codes of friendship. American Circumstance also provides a window into the replication of wealth, power, and privilege. The novel can be used as supplemental reading in courses across the disciplines that deal with gender, social class, inequality, power, family systems, relational communication, intimate relationships, identity, American culture, narrative or creative writing. It can also be read in book clubs or entirely for pleasure. “American Circumstance is wonderful! The characters and story invite you into a world that is both familiar and unfamiliar. Highly recommended!!” – Carl Leggo, Ph.D., University of British Columbia “American Circumstance kept me up! I wanted to see how the characters’ lives untangled. I loved how Leavy challenged my cultural assumptions. Students will have a lot to talk about as they discover the 'sociology of everyday life' embedded in the fiction.” – Laurel Richardson, Ph.D., The Ohio State University “The characters were so compelling that I couldn’t stop reading ... a great beach read, or class text.” – U. Melissa Anyiwo, Ph.D., Curry College “Leavy writes in an engaging way that helps you ask important questions about class issues in America. This story keeps you interested and wondering why women make the choices they do.” – Margaret A. Robbins, The Journal of Language & Literacy Education “American Circumstance is one of my favorite texts to assign to my sociology students.” – Cheryl Llewellyn, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Lowell Patricia Leavy, Ph.D., is an award-winning independent sociologist and best-selling author.

America's preeminent religious historian reflects on the critical role of religious diversity in our national self-understanding.

"[T]he problem which this collection of essays addresses is rooted in the fact that no other society in the world is so imbued both with the aura and aroma of the Bible, while simultaneously subjecting it to such parasitic cultural captivity . . . This little book reflects the power of what can happen when bright, passionate minds embrace the problem of the American myth . . . No other American biblical scholar until now has responded more courageously to the issues of deconstructing the American myth . . . What finally matters [here] is that a theologian finally loves the Bible enough, and finally loves his culture enough, to question how both are being used in our time and place for the gain of the few, at the expense of the many." --Charles Mabee, StABH series editor

In this second volume of two tracing the history of 20th-century American religion, Martin E. Marty tells the story of how America has survived religious disturbances and culturally prospered from them.