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How pleasantly jarring to be invited to enter Santa Clara Street, to feel the heat of the summer, to smell the alcohol on the breaths of the youth, to hear the bottles breaking on the sidewalk and to, most importantly, be treated to a fine analysis of the experiences of some of these cruisers. - Daniel Thomas Cook, author of The Commodification of Childhood: The Children's Clothing Industry and the Rise of the Child Consumer Has the potential to expand our knowledge about young people's great social power, their contributions to changing culture, and their influence in marketplace decision-making.... A compelling and thought-provoking read. - Debra Van Ausdale, author of The First R: How Children Learn Race and Racism

"""Fast Cars, Cool Rides is empirically rich, full of arresting observations and revealing verbatim quotes."" --American Journal of Sociology ""Best's insights and observations should help youth workers and other adults understand this often powerful symbol."" --Youth Today ""Best shines a fluorescent street light on young people in high octane motion, making meaning and community through their cars... Best's subjects articulate an intricate interplay of class, race, gender, and identity formation; she's given a great American institution its props."" --Donna Gaines, author of Teenage Wasteland: Suburbia's Dead End Kids""How pleasantly jarring to be invited to enter Santa Clara Street, to feel the heat of the summer, to smell the alcohol on the breaths of the youth, to hear the bottles breaking on the sidewalk and to, most importantly, be treated to a fine analysis of the experiences of some of these cruisers."" --Daniel Thomas Cook, author of The Commodification of Childhood: The Children's Clothing Industry and the Rise of the Child Consumer""Has the potential to expand our knowledge about young people's great social power, their contributions to changing culture, and their influence in marketplace decision-making... A compelling and thought-provoking read."" --Debra Van Ausdale, author of The First R: How Children Learn Race and Racism""In Fast Cars, Cool Rides, Amy Best takes the inside lane on how and why young people use their cars as a means of cultural expression. Whether the school parking lot, auto-shop class, or the San Jose cruising scene, and whether the goal is personal freedom, racial solidarity, masculine power, or feminine rebelliousness, the car is the vehicle for the job, affording youth the symbolic and material means to solidify their identities within the context of global consumer culture. An intelligent, well-written book on kids and their cars; buckle up and take this ride."" --Laura Grindstaff, author of The Money Shot: Trash, Class, and the Making of TV Talk Shows""Amy Best once again proves herself a most astute observer of youth cultures. This exciting study of diverse American car cultures brims with insight about identity formation, commodification, and the making of diverse modern selves."" --Janice M. Irvine, author of Talk About Sex: The Battles Over Sex Education in the United States""Social observers from Tom Wolfe to George Lucas have seen Californians' car-cruising as emblematic of our larger society and social structure. Amy Best studied the scene in San Jose. In her eyes, young people's actions and attitudes toward cars reveal links among gender, ethnicity, material culture, and contemporary social structure."" --Joel Best, author of Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists"

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Amy L. Best is Professor of Sociology at George Mason University. She is the author of Fast-Food Kids: French Fries, Lunch Lines, and Social Ties, Fast Cars, Cool Rides: The Accelerating World of Youth and Their Cars, and the award-winning, Prom Night: Youth, Schools and Popular Culture. She also edited Representing Youth: Methodological Issues in Critical Youth Studies.

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