#MeToo
2008 financial crisis
A01=Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas
American Dream
American exceptionalism
American identity
American myth
American nationalism
artificial intelligence
Atomic Bomb
Author_Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas
authoritarianism
capitalism
casual Cruelty
Category=JHBA
Category=QRAM1
Category=QRM
community building
Consumption
COVID-19 pandemic
creative destruction
critical race theory
cultural myths
dehumanization
Donald Trump
educational inequality
envy
epistemic solipsism
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
eros
ethic of redemptive difference
ethical Dilemmas
excess
exploitation
feminist womanist thought
Frankenstein
Frederick Douglass
genetic manipulation
gluttony
Hollywood
human values
indoctrination
intersectionality
intimacy
Jr.
justice
knowledge production
leisure class
lust
Martin Luther King
Material wealth
media manipulation
mercy
meritocracy
middle class
moral accountability
moral character
neoliberal
neoliberalism
Ninian Smart
pleasure
political tribalism
Prometheus
Prosperity gospel
public morality
rehumanization
Religious Studies
repentance
retail therapy
right-wing populism
Ritualized behavior
self-destruction
sexual objectification
sloth
social justice
social media
social oppression
Spiritual emptiness
Supreme Court
systemic oppression
toxic masculinity
trickle-down economics
truth telling
Wall Street
wealth
wealth without work
white Christian nationalism
white supremacy
Worship without sacrifice
wrath
Product details
- ISBN 9780252049507
- Weight: 454g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 24 Feb 2026
- Publisher: University of Illinois Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
The Seven Deadly Sins have become the seven markers of success in America. Lust, pride, greed, sloth, envy, gluttony, wrath—these once-condemned principles now guide people's pursuit of the good life.
Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas examines how the Seven Deadly Sins have shaped the moral strivings and sociopolitical condition of American society and culture in the twenty-first century. Drawing on a multidimensional approach, Floyd-Thomas uses race, gender, class, and other lenses to break down the moral crises that define the American Dream. Her critique exposes the harm done by individual and collective practices of sexual objectification, capitalist materialism, wealth inequality, and technological hubris before pivoting to the rise of right-wing populism, white Christian nationalism, and the politics of cruelty. But Floyd-Thomas also proposes an ethic that emphasizes truth-telling, community engagement, and values rooted in humility, justice, and mercy—a new path for the US to overcome systemic oppression and create a more just society.
Evocative and ambitious, When the Good Life Goes Bad takes readers on a wide-ranging journey through US life and culture to explain what corrupted the American dream.
Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas examines how the Seven Deadly Sins have shaped the moral strivings and sociopolitical condition of American society and culture in the twenty-first century. Drawing on a multidimensional approach, Floyd-Thomas uses race, gender, class, and other lenses to break down the moral crises that define the American Dream. Her critique exposes the harm done by individual and collective practices of sexual objectification, capitalist materialism, wealth inequality, and technological hubris before pivoting to the rise of right-wing populism, white Christian nationalism, and the politics of cruelty. But Floyd-Thomas also proposes an ethic that emphasizes truth-telling, community engagement, and values rooted in humility, justice, and mercy—a new path for the US to overcome systemic oppression and create a more just society.
Evocative and ambitious, When the Good Life Goes Bad takes readers on a wide-ranging journey through US life and culture to explain what corrupted the American dream.
Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas is the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University and has served as the executive director of both the Society of Christian Ethics, the Black Religious Scholars Group and is co-founder of the Society of Race, Ethnicity, and Religion. She has published ten books including Religion, Race, and COVID-19: Confronting White Supremacy in the Pandemic and The Altars Where We Worship: The Religious Significance of Popular Culture.
