Road Dogs and Loners

Reviews / Votes

Timothy Pippert's Road Dogs and Loners offers the most in-depth look at familial relationships of homeless men available today. The author has richly connected his analysis to current literature in the fields of homelessness, family, and gender. Pippert presents a sobering portrait of relational and material poverty across generations, as well as chronicling the efforts of homeless men to forge friendship and "fictive kin" relationships on the streets. This hold-no-punches book is a valuable contribution to the literatures on homelessness, family, and gender at the start of the twenty-first century. -- Leon Anderson, Professor of Sociology, Ohio University Road Dogs and Loners is a fascinating, multi-method account of the nature and texture of family relationships among two categories of homeless men - those who partner-up and those who go it alone on the streets. It is the most incisive and theoretically informed elaboration of street relationships I have read. A genuine contribution to the literatures on homelessness and on family relationships in the most challenging of contexts.... -- David A. Snow, Chancellor's Professor of Sociology, University of California, Irvine This interesting story undoes much conventional wisdom about homelessness...Pipert's mission, to reveal the intrinsic humanity of homeless men, emerges fully. Summing Up: Highly Recommended. All academic levels/libraries. -- E.A. Danto, City University of New York Hunter College * Choice Reviews * With his in-depth interviewing and perceptive ethnography Timothy Pippert transports us into the lives of homeless men, mapping out their brittle relations. He discovers not only loners but also committed companions or what he calls the "fictive kin" of road dogs. Pippert makes sociological theory dance to the tunes of the street. -- Michael Burawoy, Professor of Sociology, University of California- Berkeley Road Dogs and Loners is a fascinating, multi-method account of the nature and texture of family relationships among two categories of homeless men - those who partner-up and those who go it alone on the streets. It is the most incisive and theoretically informed elaboration of street relationships I have read. A genuine contribution to the literatures on homelessness and on family relationships in the most challenging of contexts. -- David A. Snow, Chancellor's Professor of Sociology, University of California, Irvine