Paul Price’s The Sociology of Waiting: How Americans Wait presents a comprehensive analysis of the ubiquitous process of “waiting”: a situation we often “lament” but do not often “interrogate.” Price’s searing analysis of waiting in a host of social situations reveals “the waiting game” in ways that enable us to see waiting in a different light. After reading this book, you will never view waiting the same way. This book is a sociological delight!

Melvin L. Oliver, President, Pitzer College

In his new monograph, Price paints a revealing portrait of the culture of waiting. Readers are treated to his copious field notes and compelling observations that detail an ethnography of the queue, including the circumstances in which people are encouraged to 'hurry up and wait.' This work is illuminating, timely, and important.

Elijah Anderson, Sterling Professor of Sociology, Yale University, author of The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race and Civility in Everyday Life and Code of the Street