Arlie Russell Hochschild is an American sociologist and professor emerita of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. The child of a diplomat and a homemaker, Hochschild credits her father’s work and the family’s many different diplomatic postings with instilling in her an appreciation for getting to know people from different backgrounds and treating them with empathy and respect. She carried those values into adulthood and obtained degrees in both International Relations and Sociology. Hochschild taught at both the University of California Santa Cruz and the University of California Berkeley, and although she no longer teaches, she still writes. A follow-up text to Strangers in their Own Land entitled Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right is forthcoming in 2024.

An interest in the way that emotion shapes belief drives much of Hochschild’s work. Past projects include an exploration of a low-income housing project for the elderly, various examinations of “emotional labor”—the process of managing emotions and expressions to fulfill the affective requirements of a job—and an inquiry into the way that parents divide parenting and household duties. Hochschild has additionally interviewed individuals employed in a range of fields to better understand the idea of the American work ethic and what she terms a culture of “workaholism” in the United States.