How Class Works: Power and Social Movement - Hardcover

Aronowitz, Mr. Stanley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300098596 ISBN 13: 9780300098594

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2003

Synopsis

Americans like to believe that they live in a classless society. Most Americans defiantly identify themselves as middle class, although economic inequality is greater in the United States than in most advanced Western nations.

Offering an important revision of conventional wisdom, Stanley Aronowitz demonstrates that class remains a potent force in the United States. Aronowitz shows that class need not be understood simply in terms of socioeconomic stratification, but rather as the power of social groups to make a difference. Aronowitz explains that social groups from different economic and political positions become ruling classes when they make demands that change the course of history. For instance, labor movements, environmental activists, and feminists have engaged in class struggles as their demands for power reconfigured the social order. The emerging global justice movements—comprised of activists from heterogeneous social and political backgrounds—also show potential for class formation. Written by a prominent scholar and social activist, this book offers a stunning reconceptualization of the meaning and significance of class in modern America.

About this title

About the Author

Stanley Aronowitz is Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Urban Education at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Review

"With this book Aronowitz puts the subject of social class squarely on the intellectual agenda - -though in a new, inclusive, and dynamic form. Like his influential False Promises, How Class Works is both intellectually exciting and morally challenging." Barbara Ehrenreich "In How Class Works, Aronowitz argues for the enduring vitality of the concept of social class as a way of understanding social relations. This is a significant contribution to social theory, an argument certain to be widely considered, debated, and tested." George Lipsitz, author of American Studies in a Moment of Danger

Edition details

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0300098596
• ISBN 13: 9780300098594
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272