Economics |
Sociology |
Nonfiction |
Business |
Summary
Summary
"That certain groups do much better in America than others -- as measured by income, occupational status, test scores, and so on -- is difficult to talk about. In large part this is because the topic feels racially charged. The irony is that the facts actually debunk racial stereotypes. There are black and Hispanic subgroups in the United States far outperforming many white and Asian subgroups. Moreover, there's a demonstrable arc to group success -- in immigrant groups, it typically dissipates by the third generation -- puncturing the notion of innate group differences and undermining the whole concept of 'model minorities.'"
Mormons have recently risen to astonishing business success. Cubans in Miami climbed from poverty to prosperity in a generation. Nigerians earn doctorates at stunningly high rates. Indian and Chinese Americans have much higher incomes than other Americans; Jews may have the highest of all.
Why do some groups rise? Drawing on groundbreaking original research and startling statistics, The Triple Package uncovers the secret to their success. A superiority complex, insecurity, impulse control--these are the elements of the Triple Package, the rare and potent cultural constellation that drives disproportionate group success. The Triple Package is open to anyone. America itself was once a Triple Package culture. It's been losing that edge for a long time now. Even as headlines proclaim the death of upward mobility in America, the truth is that the old-fashioned American Dream is very much alive--but some groups have a cultural edge, which enables them to take advantage of opportunity far more than others.
* Americans are taught that everyone is equal, that no group is superior to another. But remarkably, all of America's most successful groups believe (even if they don't say so aloud) that they're exceptional, chosen, superior in some way.
* Americans are taught that self-esteem--feeling good about yourself--is the key to a successful life. But in all of America's most successful groups, people tend to feel insecure, inadequate, that they have to prove themselves.
* America today spreads a message of immediate gratification, living for the moment. But all of America's most successful groups cultivate heightened discipline and impulse control.
But the Triple Package has a dark underside too. Each of its elements carries distinctive pathologies; when taken to an extreme, they can have truly toxic effects. Should people strive for the Triple Package? Should America? Ultimately, the authors conclude that the Triple Package is a ladder that should be climbed and then kicked away, drawing on its power but breaking free from its constraints.
Provocative and profound, The Triple Package will transform the way we think about success and achievement.
Author Notes
Amy Chua is a professor at Yale Law School and lectures frequently on the effects of gloabalization to government, business, and academic groups around the world. She lives in New Haven, Connecticut. Her title Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother made The New York Times Best Seller List for 2012.
(Publisher Fact Sheets)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In their provocative new book, Chua (Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother) and Rubenfeld (The Interpretation of Murder)-Yale Law professors and spouses-show why certain groups in the U.S. perform better than others. Studying the more material measures of success- income, occupational status, and test scores-the authors found, for example, that Mormons occupy leading positions in politics and business; the Ivy League admission rates of West Indian and African immigrant groups far exceed those of non-immigrant American blacks (a group left behind by these measures); and Indian and Jewish Americans have the highest incomes. According to the authors, three traits breed success: a superiority complex, insecurity, and impulse control. Only when this "Triple Package" comes together does it "generate drive, grit, and systematic disproportionate group success." Supported by statistics and original research, the authors also analyze each trait as they explore the experience of other rising cultural groups: Chinese-Americans, Iranians, Cubans, and others. This comprehensive, lucid sociological study balances its findings with a probing look at the downsides of the triple package-the burden of carrying a family's expectations, and deep insecurities that come at a psychological price. Agents: Tina Bennett, William Morris Endeavor (Chua), Suzanne Gluck, William Morris Endeavor (Rubenfeld). (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Husband and wife professors at Yale Law School explore why some cultural groups in the United States are generally more successful than others. Chua made waves in 2011 with her controversial best-selling book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, which contrasted the high-expectation stance of a certain kind of Chinese mother with that of the relatively relaxed style of most other mothers in America. This book explores the reasons why some groups, such as those of Asian heritage, are succeeding disproportionately to their numbers in the population at large. (Yes, tiger mothering has something to do with it.) Why do Asian-Americans dominate admissions at the Ivy League and other top universities? Why are so many Nobel Prize winners Jewish? Why are there so many Mormon CEOs? Why are Nigerian-born Americans overrepresented among doctorates and MDs? Chua and Rubenfeld (The Death Instinct, 2010, etc.) argue that each of these groups is endowed with a "triple package" of values that together make for a potent engine driving members to high rates of success: Each views their group as special (think of the Jewish idea of "the chosen people"); each has instilled in them an insecurity about their worthiness that can only be palliated by achievement; and each is taught the values of impulse control and hard work. The authors claim that the U.S. was originally a triple-package nation. However, while Americans still view their country as exceptional, in the last 30 years, the other two parts of the package have gone out the window, replaced by a popular culture that values egalitarianism, self-esteem and instant gratification, creating a vacuum for more motivated groups to fill. On a highly touchy subject, the authors tread carefully, backing their assertions with copious notes. Though coolly and cogently argued, this book is bound to be the spark for many potentially heated discussions.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
New York Review of Books Review
QUANYU HUANG'S NEW BOOK, "The Hybrid Tiger: Secrets of the Extraordinary Success of Asian-American Kids," may sound like yet another flogging for hapless Western parents, but it's not. You can't blame American mothers for still smarting from Amy Chua's best-selling 2011 book, "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother." In breathtaking and bold calligraphic strokes, she laid out her argument: American parents overindulge their children, allowing them sleepovers, video games and laughable extracurricular activities like playing Villager Number Six in the school play, as they collect trophies for being themselves in a self-esteem-centered culture. By contrast, Chinese parents strictly limit television, video games and socializing, accept no grades but A's and insist on several hours a day of violin and piano practice, regardless of their children's complaints. As a result, Chinese-parented kids play Carnegie Hall at 14, get perfect scores in science and math, and gain early admission to Harvard while their floundering American counterparts wonder what on earth hit them. Chua did some hasty backpedaling shortly thereafter, but Tiger Mom was forever out of the box. Now Quanyu Huang, a Chinese-born professor at Miami University of Ohio, proposes a kinder, gentler blending of East and West in what he calls the Hybrid Tiger. Because apparently the Chinese have their own educational woes. As early as the late 1970s, post-Cultural Revolution officials were already comparing American classrooms with their own. In contrast to tightly run Chinese schools (where students had nearly double the class time and much more homework), America's chaotic classrooms were "carnivals" of rude children counting on their fingers and administrators "prattling on about meaningless subjects such as personal growth, self-esteem, individuality and creativity." Triumphantly, the Chinese predicted that in 20 years China would lead the world in science and technology, and America would sink like Atlantis, a conclusion horrified American delegates agreed with. But no. Even today, while Chinese students still excel in test-taking, China has yet to produce a single Nobel Prize winner in the sciences or a Steve Jobs or Bill Gates (although, of course, American computer parts are made in China). FROM THIS STUNNING THROW-DOWN, Huang continues his intriguing contrarian analysis, offering a perplexed yet loving native son's humanizing perspective on Chinese culture. Yes, he says, the Chinese invented paper, gunpowder, the compass and printing press - but for what ends? They used gunpowder for fireworks and compasses for feng shui, never thinking to mass-produce books or dreaming that Westerners would eventually attack them with their own inventions. The Chinese's fifth invention, though, was the standardized test. Dating back to the seventh century (Sui Dynasty), it was less punishment than a marvelously democratizing tool through which lowborn citizens were able to advance their position. This is the DNA beneath a centuries-old reverence for education; it's why Chinese children attend school from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. with such fervent dedication. And it's those sheer hours, Huang argues, with his own parental examples, that make the difference. Chinese kids are not allowed to quit studying when it's not "fun." By contrast, "American children are scared of math, not because they lack the ability to think logically in abstract terms, but because of their attitude toward studying." Is Tiger Mother right, then? Surprisingly, Huang says no, arguing that she is not even very Chinese: "Her harsh, anachronistic methods are out of date and far outside of what is acceptable and encouraged in mainstream society in China today" (not to mention that real Chinese parents would insist on their child playing not just piano and violin but Chinese instruments). When he presented mainland Chinese parents with the Tiger Mother's harsh child rearing methods (which readers will recall included threatening to burn her daughter's stuffed animals), they were stunned. "The Tiger Mother is a creature of confusion," Huang writes. "She is a mix of Amy Chua's interpretation of what Chinese mothers do, Western egocentrism and plain, simple sensationalism." Regardless of how purely "Chinese" Chua is, though, she's ba-a-ack. This time she has written, with her husband, Jed Rubenfeld, a fellow Yale law professor and popular suspense novelist, "The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America." The title refers to psychological characteristics shared by all of America's overachieving subgroups: a group superiority complex, insecurity about one's personal worth or status, and impulse control, i.e., the ability to resist temptation, particularly the temptation to surrender when the going gets tough. Aside from Chinese, Indians and Jews, potential surprises on the American subgroup success list include Mormons (except fundamentalists), Cubans and Nigerians. The Triple Package's flip side is that, taken too far, these qualities can create "deep pathologies" (extreme insecurity, hyper-materialism). That's the Triple Package as a thesis. "The Triple Package" as a book is a real head-scratcher, though - its own puzzling triple package. It's part sociological study, part national call to arms (a once strong, now instant-gratification-addicted America has apparently lost its Triple Package) and even part self-help book (to gain success, we can all create our own Triple Package). Connecting these far-flung dots seems to require, first of all, a lot of repetition of the phrase "Triple Package" (on one page it appears seven times). What's curious, though, for two authors whose books, savory or not, can be real page turners (Rubenfeld's novels feature everything from murder to erotic asphyxiation; even Chua's scholarly work "World on Fire" opens with a hair-raisingly riveting account of her aunt's throat being cut), is how dull the prose is. "That certain groups do much better in America than others - as measured by income, occupational status, test scores and so on - is difficult to talk about." "Successful people tend to feel simultaneously inadequate and superior." "It's hard to write or talk about Appalachia even if you're from there." But, always, the authors somehow heroically surmount these politically correct difficulties by noting that even though the Appalachian-born Diane Sawyer drew heat when covering rural poverty in Kentucky, poor white Appalachians do lack the Triple Package. Impulse control is an issue, and some have termed the region's inhabitants - and our authors are just the messengers - "pillbillies." The continual restatement of the thesis (which is a kind of truism - who actually expects addiction and complacency to be success markers?), and the winners-versus-losers emphasis, makes reading this book feel like being slugged over and over again by a bully wearing kid gloves. While Tiger Mom was ruthless, here the claws are perfectly sheathed. One is tempted to say Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but there's a more interesting question at hand. As opposed to Chinese Tigers robotically assembling Apple products, isn't it more wondrous to behold the specter of two Chinese-Jewish Ivy League law professor/successful author Hybrid Tigers who've fashioned Yale student research (from a 2008 project) into a dull but probably lucrative book? Such are the rewards of our American meritocracy. It's reason enough to prod our own Villager Number Sixes into putting more hours into math and violin, if not those Chinese instruments. 'That certain groups do much better in America than others ... is difficult to talk about.' SANDRA TSING LOH'S new memoir, "The Madwoman in the Volvo: My Year of Raging Hormones," will be published in May.
Library Journal Review
Married Yale Law professors Chua (Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother) and Rubenfeld (The Interpretation of Murder) identify and examine select characteristics differentiating what they call "disproportionately successful" minority cultures (e.g., Indian Americans, Mormons) from plain-vanilla citizens. Three traits-the titular "triple package"-common to these socioeconomically successful cultures, they say, are a disciplined work ethic, a superiority complex, and acute societal insecurity. The authors typify the model by focusing on minority groups including Nigerians, Lebanese, and Jews. Narrator Jonathan Todd Ross's delivery is crisp and confident, though the statistical and numerical information included often make for a stiff reading. -verdict At times the data seems conveniently chosen, making the thesis feel retrofitted. Nevertheless, this work is appropriate for large public libraries and most academic collections. ["This is popular sociology at its best: well researched, heavily noted, and clearly written. Recommended to all curious general readers," read the review of the Penguin Pr. hc, LJ 2/1/14.]-Douglas C. Lord, New Britain P.L., CT (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
If there's one group in the United States today that's hitting it out of the park with conventional success, it's Mormons. Just fifty years ago, many Americans had barely heard of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and regarded Mormons as a fringe group. Now Mormons are one of the most successful groups in America. Overwhelmingly, Mormon success has been of the most mainstream, conventional, apple-pie, 1950s variety. You don't find a lot of Mormons breaking the mold or dropping out of college to form their own high-tech start-ups. What you find is corporate, financial, and political success, which makes perfect sense given the nature of the Mormon chip on the shoulder. Long regarded as a polygamous, almost crackpot, sect, Mormons seem determined to prove they're more American than other Americans. Whereas Protestants make up about 51 percent of the U.S. population, America's five million to six million Mormons comprise just 1.7 percent. Yet a stunning number have risen to the top of America's corporate and political spheres. Baptists are America's largest Christian denomination, with a population of forty million to fifty million, about eight times the size of the Mormon population. The roster of living Baptist corporate powerhouses is not, however, eight times the size of the Mormon list. On the contrary, available data indicate it's much smaller. Here's another data point: In February 2012, Goldman Sachs announced the addition of three hundred more employees to the thirteen hundred already working in the firm's third largest metropolitan center of operations (after New York/New Jersey and London). Where is this sixteen-hundred-employee headquarters? In Salt Lake City, Utah. By reputation, the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton business school is one of the nation's best and most prestigious. In 2010, Wharton placed thirty-one of its graduates with Goldman--exactly the same number as did Brigham Young University's less well-known Marriott School of Management. The real testament to Mormons' extraordinary capacity to earn and amass wealth, however, is the LDS Church itself. The amount of American land owned by the Mormon church is larger than the State of Delaware. The entire Church of England, with its grand history, had assets of about $6.9 billion as of 2008. The Vatican claimed $5 billion in assets as of 2002. By comparison, the Church of the Latter-day Saints is believed to have owned $25 billion to $30 billion in assets as of 1997, with present revenues of $5 billion to $6 billion a year. As one study puts it, "Per capita, no other religion comes close to such figures." Excerpted from The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America by Amy Chua, Jed Rubenfeld All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.