The Lonely Quest

"This book manages to make a useful contribution to an immense, wide-ranging and disparate literature... Hauhart is at his best when he employs an empirically driven critique of some of the more optimistic theories of the modern self. Here he successfully challenges abstract generalizations while arguing persuasively that class differences in the production of modern identities are being ignored, contending that most poor and working-class people have been cut loose from meaningful roles and relationships."

Peter Callero in Contemporary Sociology

"The Lonely Quest is an important, timely and well-researched book. Individualism is undergoing profound transformation at the current social-historical juncture, and Hauhart writes with special conviction, insight and verve. This excellent book is a sophisticated glimpse into the new individualisms of our possible futures."

Anthony Elliott, Research Professor and Executive Director, Hawke EU Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence, University of South Australia

"The Lonely Quest takes up the immense and pressing question of how individuals create (or fail to create) an integrated and effective self in the globalized, unequal, and socially fragmented context of the contemporary United States. Hauhart digests a broad literature, across a range of disciplines, to present what has been theorized about the self, puncturing theoretical balloons along the way. He offers an important caution: Few have the structural and institutional resources necessary to create fulfilling selves – and our cultural pillars of individualism and meritocracy exacerbate the deficit. Lest we think this is simply an "individual" issue, he cautions against the social outcomes of "failed identity." The Lonely Quest is a good and important contribution."

Dennis J. Downey, California State University Channel Islands; President-Elect (2019-20) of the Pacific Sociological Association