Books by Gary Alan Fine

Given that matters relevant to race remain confused and divisive in many corridors of American society, it is not surprising that rumors and legends that reflect racial misunderstanding and mistrust frequently circulate. This work focuses on a wide array of tales told in black and white communities across America.

From Henry Darger's claborate works of young girls caught in a brutal war to the New Mexican artist who sells animal-hide sculptures by the side of the road, the work of "outsider" artists has achieved unique status in the art world.

This study analyzes the, often misunderstood, subculture of fantasy role-playing games such as 'Dungeons and Dragons'.Gary Alan Fine immerses himself in several different gaming systems, offering insightful details on the nature of the games and the behaviour of the players.

Learning to argue and persuade in a highly competitive environment is only one aspect of life on a high-school debate team. Teenage debaters also participate in a distinct cultural world--complete with its own jargon and status system--in which they must negotiate complicated relationships with teammates, competitors, coaches, and parents as well as classmates outside the debating circuit. In Gifted Tongues, Gary Alan Fine offers a rich description of this world as a testing ground for both intellectual and emotional development, while seeking to understand adolescents as social actors. Considering the benefits and drawbacks of the debating experience, he also recommends ways of reshaping programs so that more high schools can use them to boost academic performance and foster specific skills in citizenship. Fine analyzes the training of debaters in rapid-fire speech, rules of logical argumentation, and the strategic use of evidence, and how this training instills the core values of such American institutions as law and politics. Debates, however, sometimes veer quickly from fine displays of logic to acts of immaturity--a reflection of the tensions experienced by young people learning to think as adults. Fine contributes to our understanding of teenage years by encouraging us not to view them as a distinct stage of development but rather a time in which young people draw from a toolkit of both childlike and adult behaviors. A well-designed debate program, he concludes, nurtures the intellect while providing a setting in which teens learn to make better behavioral choices, ones that will shape relationships in their personal, professional, and civic lives.

Gary Fine explores how Americans attempt to give meaning to the natural world that surrounds them. Fine suggests that the meanings we assign to the natural environment are culturally grounded and he supports this claim by examining the fascinating world of mushrooming.

From 1945 to 1960, the University of Chicago was home to a group of students whose work has come to define a second "Chicago School" of sociology. In this book, sociologists critically confront this legacy and discuss the internal conflicts that call into question the idea of a unified "school".

Describes how people and groups attempt to give meaning to the natural world that surrounds them.

Kitchens takes us into the robust, overheated, backstage world of the contemporary restaurant. In this rich, often surprising portrait of the real lives of kitchen workers, Gary Alan Fine brings their experiences, challenges, and satisfactions to colorful life. A new preface updates this riveting exploration of how restaurants actually work, both individually and as part of a larger culinary culture.