Join the Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World

by Tina Rosenberg

Overview

"Empowering . . . sweepingly ambitious . . . . Rosenberg's case studies are as different as they are fascinating . . . A brilliant book." —Abraham Verghese, Newsweek

A winner of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, Tina Rosenberg has spent her career tackling some of the world’s hardest problems. Now, through striking stories from around the globe, Rosenberg shows how positive peer pressure can change people’s behavior and solve seemingly intractable social quandaries. In every case, pioneering social entrepreneurs throw out the old models for social change in favor of humanity’s most powerful and abundant resource: our connections with one another. The result is one of those rare books that will not only revolutionize the way you look at the world but also give you the power to change it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393341836
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	04/23/2012
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Tina Rosenberg, the winner of a MacArthur grant, is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine. Her last book, The Haunted Land, won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. She lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Join the Club xi

1 Turning Positive 1

2 The Empire of Irrationality 21

3 Righteous Rebels 43

4 Corporate Tools 63

5 The Calculus Club 97

6 Angels of Change 125

7 A Problem That Has No Name 159

8 The Party 211

9 The Judo of Fear 249

10 Next 283

Acknowledgments 353

Notes 355

Bibliography 371

Index 381

Editorial Reviews

"Rosenberg is an uncommonly incisive and empathetic observer."— Jonathan Liu Boston Globe

"Timely, thoughtful and important."— Jeffrey D. Sachs New York Times Book Review

"A solution that is simple yet profound, and rooted in human nature."— Deirdre Donahue USA Today

From the Publisher

Rosenberg valuably reminds us that the success of a society depends on the strength of its communities, because the development of our best traits—trust, honesty, foresight, responsibility and compassion—depends upon our close interactions with others. At a time when America is grappling with a decline in trust, and when cooperation across nations and cultures is extremely difficult, Rosenberg's book is timely, thoughtful and important. It illuminates one crucial piece of the complex puzzle of social ­improvement.
—The New York Times

Jeffrey D. Sachs