Triple Package (Chua) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
The Triple Package as a book is a real head-scratcher.... It’s part sociological study, part national call to arm...and even part self-help book.... 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...is how dull the prose is.... 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.
Sandra Tsing Loh - New York Times Book Review


The problem with the The Triple Package is that its fundamental argument is half-baked. The question of how cultural, societal, economic, and historical factors interact, and how this interaction gives rise to problems like inequality, is one of the trickiest in the social sciences, and Chua and Rubenfeld fail to give it its intellectual due. .... It’s also worth pointing out that The Triple Package isn’t without its charms. Chua and Rubenfeld’s recountings of how various ethnic groups carved out chunks of the American dream are engaging and concise.
Jesse Singal - Boston Globe


This book has stirred up a storm of controversy. But why shouldn't Tiger Mother Amy Chua and her husband investigate the success of certain cultural and ethnic groups? The question is: are they right in their explanation of it?... Whether the authors' explanation as to why some groups thrive is valid is another question, and it's a problem with this kind of book that the marketing hook, in this case the "triple package"—a clunky formulation the authors have chosen "for lack of a less terrible name" —is often too flimsy or too broad to be meaningful.
Emma Brockes - Guardian (UK)


(Starrerd 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.... This comprehensive, lucid sociological study balances its findings with a probing look at the downsides of the triple package..
Publishers Weekly


Some ethnic or religious groups seem disproportionately successful.... Chua (Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother) and Rubenfeld (The Interpretation of Murder), professors at Yale Law School and wife and husband, researched the question.... This is popular sociology at its best: well researched, heavily noted, and clearly written.... [L]ikely to promote debate. —David Azzolina, Univ. of Pennsylvania Libs., Philadelphia
Library Journal


This book explores why...Asian-Americans dominate admissions at the Ivy League..? 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? Though coolly and cogently argued, this book is bound to be the spark for many potentially heated discussions
Kirkus Reviews