Washoe County Library System

"Molly Caro May grew up as part of a nomadic family, one proud of their international sensibilities, a tribe that never settled in one place for very long. Growing up moving from foreign country to foreign country, just like her father and grandfather, she became attached to her identity as a global woman from nowhere. But, on the verge of turning thirty years old, everything changed. Molly and her fiance, Chris suddenly move to 107 acres in Montana,...

Humans are tribal. We need to belong to groups. In many parts of the world, the group identities that matter mostthe ones that people will kill and die forare ethnic, religious, sectarian, or clan-based. But because America tends to see the world in terms of nation-states engaged in great ideological battlesCapitalism vs. Communism, Democracy vs. Authoritarianism, the “Free World” vs. the “Axis of Evil”we are often spectacularly blind to the...

Draws on history, psychology, and anthropology to discuss how the tribal connection--the instinct to belong to small groups with a clear purpose and common understanding--can satisfy the human quest for meaning and belonging. Decades before the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin lamented that English settlers were constantly fleeing over to the Indians -- but Indians almost never did the same. Tribal society has been exerting an almost gravitational...

"In Roots Quest, sociologist Jackie Hogan digs into our current genealogy boom to ask why we are so interested in our family history. She shows how the surging popularity of genealogy is a response to large-scale social changes, and she explores the way our increasingly rootless society fuels the quest for an elemental sense of belonging--for roots."--Provided by publisher.

America may be more diverse than ever coast to coast, but the places where we live are becoming increasingly crowded with people who live, think, and vote as we do. We've built a country where we can all choose the neighborhood--and church and news show--most compatible with our lifestyle and beliefs. And we are living with the consequences of this way-of-life segregation. Our country has become so polarized, so ideologically inbred, that people don't...