{"product_id":"the-best-of-the-best-ruben-a-gaztambide-fernandez-9780674035683","title":"Best of the Best: Becoming Elite at an American Boarding School","description":"\u003cp\u003eFor two years, Rub n Gaztambide-Fern ndez shared the life of what he calls the \"Weston School,\" an elite New England boarding school. He sat in on classes, ate meals in the dining halls, cheered at sporting events, hung out in dorms while students baked cookies or celebrated birthdays. And through it all, observing the experiences of a diverse group of students, conducting interviews and focus groups, he developed a nuanced portrait of how these students make sense of their extraordinary good fortune in attending the school. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eVividly describing the pastoral landscape and graceful buildings, the rich variety of classes and activities, and the official and unofficial rules that define the school, \u003ci\u003eThe Best of the Best\u003c\/i\u003e reveals a small world of deeply ambitious, intensely pressured students. Some are on scholarship, others have never met a public school student, but all feel they have earned their place as a \"Westonian\" by being smart and working hard. Weston is a family, they declare, with a niche for everyone, but the hierarchy of coolness--the way in which class, race, sexism, and good looks can determine one's place--is well known. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor Gaztambide-Fern ndez, Weston is daunting yet strikingly bucolic, inspiring but frustratingly incurious, and sometimes--especially for young women--a gilded cage for a gilded age. \"Would you send your daughter here?\" one girl asks him, and seeing his hesitation asks, \"Because you love her?\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Ruben A. Gaztambide-Fernandez\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0674035682\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780674035683\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Harvard University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/01\/2009\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 312\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.30lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.20h x 6.50w x 1.10d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChronicle of Higher Education\u003c\/i\u003e 10\/02\/2009 pg. 16","brand":"Ruben A. Gaztambide-Fernandez","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":44043539677439,"sku":"9780674035683","price":41.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_819dcab7-90e1-43c8-9be5-89e972093715.jpg?v=1684967738","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-best-of-the-best-ruben-a-gaztambide-fernandez-9780674035683","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}