The American class structure in an age of growing inequality
"In this Eighth Edition of his acclaimed and thought-provoking text, author Dennis Gilbert explores historical and contemporary empirical studies of class inequality in America through the lens of nine key variables. Focusing on the socioeconomic core of the American class system, Gilbert describes a consistent pattern of growing inequality in the United States since the early 1970s. In his search for the answer to why class disparities continue to increase, Gilbert examines changes in the economy, family life, and politics, drawing on vivid first-person accounts to illustrate the human emotion wrapped up in class issues." http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy1101/2009047288-d.html
xii, 297 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm
9781412979658, 141297965X
460052659
1. Social class in America
Karl Marx
Max Weber
2. Position and prestige
W. Lloyd Warner : prestige classes in Yankee City
Class structure of the metropolis
Prestige of occupation
Occupations and social classes
Perception of rank and strata
3. Social class, occupation and social change
Middletown : 1890 and 1924
Middletown revisited
Industrialization and the transformation of the national class structure
The national upper class
The industrial working class
The new middle class
National occupational system
Transformations of the American occupational structure
From agricultural to postindustrial society
women workers in postindustrial society
Transformation of the Black occupational structure
Wages in the age of growing inequality
Harrison and Bluestone : new corporate strategies
Frank and Cook : winner take all
4. Wealth and income
Distribution of income
Sources of income
Income shares
Taxes and transfers
Women and the distribution of household income
The distribution of wealth
Income dynamics
Changing Federal tax rates
5. Socialization, association, lifestyles and values
Bourdieu : the varieties of capital
children's conception of social class
Kohn : class and socialization
Lareau : child rearing observed
School and marriage
Marriage styles
Blue-collar marriages and middle-class models
Social class and domestic violence
Informal association among adults
Formal associations
6. Social mobility : the societal context
Wealth mobility
Social mobility of women
Circulation and structural mobility
7. Family, education and career
Blau and Duncan : analyzing mobility models
Jencks on equality
Who goes to college?
Stratification of higher education
8. Elites, the capitalist class and political power
Mills : the national power elite
Mills, his critics, and problem of elite cohesion
Power elite or ruling class?
The national capitalist class
Money and politics
Business lobbies
Policy-planning groups
Indirect mechanisms of capitalist-class influence
The capitalist-class resurgence
9. Class consciousness and class conflict
Marx and the origins of class consciousness
Richard Centers and class identification
Married women and class identification
Class identification, political opinion, and voting
Bott : frames of reference
elections and the democratic class struggle
Class, party and support for social programs
Class and political participation
Trends in class partisanship
Class conflict and the Labor Movement
The postwar armistice : unions in the age of shared prosperity
Labor in decline
10. The poor, the underclass and public policy
Beginnings of welfare : Roosevelt
Rediscovery of poverty : Kennedy and Johnson
Official definition of poverty
Trends in poverty
The under class and the transitory poor
Restructuring welfare
Mystery of persistent poverty
11. The American class structure and growing inequality
The capitalist class
The upper-middle class
The middle class
The working class
The working poor
The underclass
Growing inequality