“This fascinating and deeply disturbing study of a premier suburban public high school will leave readers pondering the paradox that the efforts of parents and teachers to advance the futures of individual students may be damaging to all students, undermining the love of learning and propelling us into an uncaring and Hobbesian future of our own making. Demerath writes with clarity and specificity that bring the stress and incivility of the system into vivid focus for every concerned citizen and parent.”

Mary Catherine Bateson, author of Composing a Life and Willing to Learn

“Producing Success tells a very good story, highlighting matters that are of both current and perennial concern. Demerath’s book should lead to interesting discussions about the stresses of academic meritocracy in America. It is a distinguished addition to the literature on American high schools.”

Hervé Varenne, Teachers College, Columbia University

"This anthropological account provides a detailed, well-documented description of how students, parents, teachers, and administrators negotiated pervasive pressures to succeed at all costs in a prestigious, success-oriented public high school. Demerath draws a troubling portrait of the price students pay in stress and fatigue, and the marginalization and alienation of those unable or unwilling to conform. Few anthropologists have examined cultural transmission in middle-class high school settings."

Choice

“Producing Success provides a unique, complex, and intriguing look at a cultural system aimed at constructing advantage that challenges readers to consider ‘how public schools articulate with the competitive requirements of [U.S.] society’”

American Anthropologist