A Decent Meal: Building Empathy in a Divided America

by Michael Carolan Narrated by Patrick Lawlor

Overview

While America's new reality appears to be a deeply divided body politic, many are wondering how we can or should move forward from here. Can political or social divisiveness be healed? Is empathy among people with very little ideological common ground possible? In A Decent Meal, Michael Carolan finds answers to these fundamental questions in a series of unexpected places: around our dinner tables, along the aisles of our supermarkets, and in the fields growing our fruits and vegetables. What is more common, after all, than the simple fact that we all need to eat?



This book is the result of Carolan's efforts to create simulations in which food could be used to build empathy, among even the staunchest of rivals. Carolan argues that we must find places and practices where incivility is suspended and leverage those opportunities into tools for building social cohesion.



Each chapter follows individuals who participated in a given experiment, ranging from strawberry-picking, attempting to subsist on SNAP benefits, or attending a dinner of wild game. By engaging with participants before, during, and after, Carolan is able to document their remarkable shifts in attitude and opinion. Though this book is framed around food, it is really about the spaces opened up by food, in our communities, in our homes, and, ultimately, in our minds.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Michael Carolan's collection of studies, experiences and stories in A Decent Meal is a reaction to the extreme social polarization in the U.S., which peaked with the storming of the Capitol. Knowledge of this disintegration, however, only appears in passing in his work – his main concern is how to stop the process. The sociologist does not think about big solutions, structural reforms or laws. For him, the focus is on the individual and the question of whether and how to get through to them. The book is a profoundly humanistic response to a tremendous humanistic crisis"—getAbstract Journal

"With interactions around food as his guiding framework, Michael Carolan seeks to answer questions keeping many Americans awake right now: Can we learn to see some of today's red-hot issues through a different lens? And in doing so, can we find common ground and maybe even some civility in these deeply divided times? An engaging and eminently readable book that may surprise with some of its observations, offering both insights and hope for our future conversations."—Joyce E. McConnell, President, Colorado State University

"This is an important and timely book that balances the voices of the right and left in a conversation about community and civility. An absolute pleasure to read, it illuminates encounters in the heartland of America and the pursuit of a decent meal. Not sure what a decent meal looks like? Michael Carolan shows us, and in the process also shows us what it looks like for Americans to come together in common cause." —Erik Schneiderhan, University of Toronto

"Empathy is in short supply in America at the very time we need it. Many of our political divisions reflect a lack of understanding of those different from ourselves. Carolan does an outstanding job giving voice to people in the heartland and helping us to understand their fears, anxieties, and motivations. His work helps us confront the challenges facing American society and ways to overcome those divisions."—Darrell West, Brookings Institution

"As a scholar who is interested in misunderstandings and empathy deficits, Carolan's writing offers insights into the ways that stereotypes take diverse forms and how these patterns—rooted in a fundamental lack of understanding—fuel political polarization. The end goal is not necessarily to see everybody as identical but to have an empathetic understanding rooted in a respect for alterity rather than a knee-jerk disdain for essentialized difference."—Josée Johnston, Social Forces

Brookings Institution - Darrell West

"Empathy is in short supply in America at the very time we need it. Many of our political divisions reflect a lack of understanding of those different from ourselves. Carolan does an outstanding job giving voice to people in the heartland and helping us to understand their fears, anxieties, and motivations. His work helps us confront the challenges facing American society and ways to overcome those divisions."

Universityof Toronto - Erik Schneiderhan

"This is an important and timely book that balances the voices of the right and left in a conversation about community and civility. An absolute pleasure to read, it illuminates encounters in the heartland of America and the pursuit of a decent meal. Not sure what a decent meal looks like? Michael Carolan shows us, and in the process also shows us what it looks like for Americans to come together in common cause."

Colorado State University - Joyce E. McConnell

"With interactions around food as his guiding framework, Michael Carolan seeks to answer questions keeping many Americans awake right now: Can we learn to see some of today's red-hot issues through a different lens? And in doing so, can we find common greflect a lack of understanding of those different from ourselves. Carolan does an outstanding job round and maybe even some civility in these deeply divided times? What sets Carolan's study apart is his use of shared experiences and social encounters as catalysts for transforming both minds and hearts. An engaging and eminently readable book that may surprise with some of its observations, offering both insights and hope for our future conversations."

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176114669
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	10/26/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged

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