Query for books about class

Dennis Breslin dbreslin at ctol.net
Thu Jan 4 10:06:12 PST 2001


If you keep the theory filters leashed, there are several authors whose work can appeal to a general audience. I think some have already mentioned Domhoff, Ehrenreich, William Ryan, etc. but here are few more:

Peter Cookson and Caroline Persell published a book on prep schools and the shaping of class consciousness. I don't remember the title...

Katherine S. Newman, _Falling From Grace_. She's done a couple of ethnographies of those experiencing downward mobility and she captures some of the bargains and contradictions among the middling classes.

Lillian Rubin's _Worlds Of Pain_ and _Families on the Fault Line_ explore the link between family life and class, espeically among working class families. Ruth Sidel also has a couple of books that look at gender, adolescence, and class.

Jonathan Kozol's _Savage Inequalities_ is a moving book though he unfortunately pulls his punches on the linkages among schooling, race, and class. The classic read is Bowles and Gintis which is accessible.

Elijah Anderson's _Streetwise_ is another good ethnography that focuses on race-class relationships, especially in the concrete living conditions and interactions between members of different groups. William J. Wilson's work is a bit more involved.

Stuart Ewen's _Captains of Consciousness_ tells a compelling story about the rise of advertising and its function in shaping class (un)consciousness.

Herbert Gans _The War Against the Poor_ elaborates his famous not so tongue in cheek take on the functions of poverty.

Some of the early work by Erik Olin Wright covers the various insider arguments and theories regarding the nature of class. Ellen Meiksins Wood's _The Retreat from Class_ shows how all of them were wrong 'cept Marx himself...

Again if the crit is accessibility by someone other than a grad student, these authors do well.

My searches over the years for websites dealing with class, stratification, inequality, etc. has netted little beyond those teaching courses and the odd essay and other net droppings that are amusing and/or poppycock.

Dennis Breslin



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