Michael Adams (2) (1946–)

This book is much less exciting than it sounds, trust me. I had to mark 25 first-year college book reports for this one, so I know it inside and out, whether I want to or not!

It's interesting, I'll admit -- Adams is a pollster, so he knows how to get information from people and how to manage it. His thesis for [Sex in the Snow] is that "demography is not destiny", and as a result, breaks down his analysis of Canadian demographic groups into social values tribes, which he asserts are of more show more use in understanding Canadians.

I could say more about the social values tribes, but I don't want to bore you in case sociology isn't your thing. If it is, however, I'd caution you before picking up this book -- the author has an extreme bias against Judeo-Christian values (or religion of any kind that isn't simply 'spirituality'), and it shows. Rather than presenting his data as an unbiased third party, which he claims to be doing, his voice creeps in from time to time and seems to be condoning the growing hedonistic tendencies of the younger generation. On more than on occasion, his statements about Christianity are tinged with bitterness and, I would go so far as to say hatred. It's certainly off-putting, when you consider what the book should be doing.

Adams also neglects to recognize the growing influence of immigrant populations here in Canada, which means he doesn't even mention the prevalence of Muslims. Islam is a growing religion, not a stagnant or declining one as he claims Christianity is (though he has trouble presenting data for this), but he doesn't even mention it. And what about Hinduism or Buddhism, or any number of other international religions that have a strong presence in Canada due to immigrant populations? It made me scratch my head to think that this well-known sociologist wouldn't even acknowledge these other ethnicities, when that's what our country is so well known for.

And finally, does he mention the good work that people who are tied to religions often do? I'm not so naive as to think all religious groups do good, but when there is a need in a community, isn't it typically a church group who will reach out and fill that need? Things like the help they give to the poor, the donations made to those in need, the communities of trust, assistance, and generosity built around these groups of people? No, Adams simply waxes poetic about hedonism and self-centered youth, sounding almost fond of the change. It's more than a little disconcerting.

Even those who are not religious or who have a strong spiritual belief may be more than a bit puzzled about Adams' reaction to shifting social values. If people are becoming more selfish, more pleasure-seeking, is that always a good thing? Consider the teenagers you know right now. The lack of courtesy many of them have for their fellow person, the defiance of authority, the self-seeking nature of their interactions. Do you want them to run the country with those attitudes still in place?

For all of our sakes, I hope Adams' data is skewed due to the segments of the population he so blatantly ignored. I just wonder why he turned a blind eye to millions of Canadians' influence and presence in his social values schema. show less

Michael Adams formed the Environics group of marketing research and communications consulting companies. When he first wrote and published this book over a decade ago, he had been working as a pollster in Canada for twenty-five years. He wrote this book in order to

… portray the diversity of the Canadian character in a way that has not been done before. It is a pschographic geography of Canada. Sex in the Snow is based on in-depth surveys of Canadians’ social values, scientific show more investigations of the underlying motivations that propel our culture.

While this was rereleased in 2006, Adams assures us in the preface that what was discussed when this was first published is only more evident today. I found it not only to be very educational and thought-provoking, but to also be written in a way that is really easy to understand. It’s not dry and isn’t something that takes a long time to get through, but was completely interesting and even rather humorous at times too.

A good majority of the book talks about how different generational groups think, and what drives them. He even goes so far as to break down each generational group into even more segments to show how different people in these generational groups can really be from each other. The other part of the book talks about how males and females relate and differ from each other, how we feel about technology, and how Canadians differ from Americans.

The last chapter (about Canadians and Americans) was the most interesting for me. I hadn’t realized how vastly different Canadian and American values were. I don’t know how much these differences in values are still present, as the preface doesn’t touch on that, but I would be interested to see how it is today. Some points that Adams said about how Canadians compared to Americans ten years ago are:

Canadians are “even more critical of institutional authority and of our élites than Americans are of theirs”
Canadians are now less religious than Americans, though we used to be more so
Canadians consider our culture to be a “mosaic” whereas Americans consider theirs to be a “melting pot”
Canadians “treasure equality” while Americans “treasure freedom”
I would highly recommend this book to people who are interested in learning more about how Canadians think and act, whether you are interested in it from a marketing perspective or a personal perspective. Definitely an interesting book. show less

OK, so Adams stretches the "sex in the snow" metaphor a little thin, this book is still an interesting read for Canadians, to learn about themselves, and for Americans, to learn about Canadians. This is a book about cultural attitudes,in a country where "demography is no longer destiny". I am a born and bred Canadian, and this book opened my eyes to some of the attitudinal patterns that are evolving in this, my country. A fascinating counterpoint to Adams' book comparing Canada and America, show more _Fire and Ice_, this is recommended for anyone who likes multivariate statistical analysis...and lots of other people besides. show less

Everyone should read this book. Why?

This book is the analysis of 8 years American's and Canadians values by Environics http://erg.environics.net/. It contains many, many examples of the different and changing values of Canadians (and regions of Canada) as compared to Americans (and regions of the US). Knowing about these differences exist will help you to deal with these people. They also help you to clarify what is important to you as a first step in making personal decisions and electing show more people/parties who share those values. This sounds very dry, but the book isn't. A few tidbits to get you interested ....

49% of Americans agree with the statement "The father of the family must be the master in his own house." Only 18% of Canadians agree with the statement.

44% of Americans believe that a widely advertised product is probably a good product. Only 17% of Canadians believe that that is true.

In the US, sport utility vehicles outsell mini-vans by a ration of 2:1. In Canada mini-vans outsell sport utility vehicles by a factor os 2:1.

For a quick bit of fun, try the surveys located at http://erg.environics.net/surveys/. The "tribe" descriptions are at http://erg.environics.net/tribe/default.asp. Do you think I am a:
a) autonomous rebel
b) cosmopolitan modernist
c) thrill-seeking materialist
d) new aquarian

Thankyou Liz for loaning me this excellent book! show less