Class Matters - Softcover

The New York Times

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0805080554 ISBN 13: 9780805080551

Publisher: Times Books, 2005

Synopsis

The acclaimed New York Times series on social class in America―and its implications for the way we live our lives.

We Americans have long thought of ourselves as unburdened by class distinctions. We have no hereditary aristocracy or landed gentry, and even the poorest among us feel that they can become rich through education, hard work, or sheer gumption. And yet social class remains a powerful force in American life.

In Class Matters, a team of New York Times reporters explores the ways in which class―defined as a combination of income, education, wealth, and occupation―influences destiny in a society that likes to think of itself as a land of opportunity. We meet individuals in Kentucky and Chicago who have used education to lift themselves out of poverty and others in Virginia and Washington whose lack of education holds them back. We meet an upper-middle-class family in Georgia who moves to a different town every few years, and the newly rich in Nantucket whose mega-mansions have driven out the longstanding residents. And we see how class disparities manifest themselves at the doctor's office and at the marriage altar.

For anyone concerned about the future of the American dream, Class Matters is truly essential reading.

About this title

About the Authors

The New York Times is a daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed internationally. Founded in 1851, the newspaper has won 112 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other news organization. Its website receives 30 million unique visitors per month.

Since 1969, the newspaper has been publishing serious nonfiction through the imprint Times Books.

BILL KELLER has worked at The New York Times for more than twenty years, serving as executive editor, domestic correspondent, foreign correspondent, foreign editor, managaing editor, and currently as an op-ed columnist. He is the author of The Tree Shaker, among other books. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Soviet Union in 1989 and was chief of the Johannesburg bureau from 1192 to 1195, witnessing firsthand the remarkable events that led to the first free election in South Africa. He lives in New York.

Reviews

The topography of class in America has shifted over the past twenty years, blurring the lines between upper, middle and lower classes; some have argued that the concept of class is irrelevant in today's society. While the 14 pieces in this volume (all originally printed as part of a New York Times series) shed light on a different aspect of class, they all agree that it remains an important facet of contemporary American culture and draw their strength by examining class less through argument than through storytelling. The reader, by following three heart attack victims through very different recoveries, by witnessing the divergent immigrant experiences of a Greek diner owner and his Mexican line cook, by tracing the life path of an Appalachian foster child turned lawyer and a single welfare mother turned registered nurse, or by seeing the world from the perspective of the wife of a "relo" (a six-figure executive who relocates every few years to climb the corporate ladder), quickly realizes class is defined by much more than income. The collection has the power of a great documentary film: it captures the lives and ideas of its subjects in lively, articulate prose that, while grounded in statistics and research, remains engaging and readable throughout. The result is neither an attack on the rich nor a lecture to the poor, but a thoughtful consideration of class dynamics. Its empathetic take on this divisive subject and straightforward prose style will make the book of interest to a wide range of readers. Recommended.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Times Books
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0805080554
• ISBN 13: 9780805080551
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288