The Dusty Letterman Jacket

On America's Habitus

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Winning streaks are strange creatures. The Boston Red Sox are on a 10-game tear right now, fueled by hope, hot bats, and sheer statistical audacity. Earlier this season, the Twins ripped off 13 straight. Even the Brewers caught fire with a 7-game sprint.

But, as every seasoned fan and ex-empire knows: streaks don’t last forever.

That’s the thesis sociologist Stephen Mennell explores using the early 20th-century concept of habitus, coined by Norbert Elias and later glamorized in academia by Pierre Bourdieu, much like how Shakespeare invented modern drama and Aaron Sorkin turned it into an espresso-fueled walking monologue. In 2020, Mennell applied this sociological lens to the U.S., describing a nation with a long history of winning, now struggling to cope with the idea that the world has... moved on.