Imagining the Middle Class

Imagining the Middle Class PDF Author: Dror Wahrman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521477109
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
Why and how did the British people come to see themselves as living in a society centred around a middle class? The answer provided by Professor Wahrman challenges most prevalent historical narratives: the key to understanding changes in conceptualisations of society, the author argues, lies not in underlying transformations of social structure - in this case industrialisation, which supposedly created and empowered the middle class - but rather in changing political configurations. Firmly grounded in a close reading of an extensive array of sources, and supported by comparative perspectives on France and America, the book offers a nuanced model for the interplay between social reality, politics, and the languages of class.

Imagining the Middle Class

Imagining the Middle Class PDF Author: Dror Wahrman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521477109
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
Why and how did the British people come to see themselves as living in a society centred around a middle class? The answer provided by Professor Wahrman challenges most prevalent historical narratives: the key to understanding changes in conceptualisations of society, the author argues, lies not in underlying transformations of social structure - in this case industrialisation, which supposedly created and empowered the middle class - but rather in changing political configurations. Firmly grounded in a close reading of an extensive array of sources, and supported by comparative perspectives on France and America, the book offers a nuanced model for the interplay between social reality, politics, and the languages of class.

Imagining the Middle Class

Imagining the Middle Class PDF Author: Dror Wahrman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


Imagining the Middle Class

Imagining the Middle Class PDF Author: Dror Wahrman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 656

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Book Description


The American Middle Class

The American Middle Class PDF Author: Lawrence R Samuel
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134624751
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
The middle class is often viewed as the heart of American society, the key to the country’s democracy and prosperity. Most Americans believe they belong to this group, and few politicians can hope to be elected without promising to serve the middle class. Yet today the American middle class is increasingly seen as under threat. In The American Middle Class: A Cultural History, Lawrence R. Samuel charts the rise and fall of this most definitive American population, from its triumphant emergence in the post-World War II years to the struggles of the present day. Between the 1920s and the 1950s, powerful economic, social, and political factors worked together in the U.S. to forge what many historians consider to be the first genuine mass middle class in history. But from the cultural convulsions of the 1960s, to the 'stagflation' of the 1970s, to Reaganomics in the 1980s, this segment of the population has been under severe stress. Drawing on a rich array of voices from the past half-century, The American Middle Class explores how the middle class, and ideas about it, have changed over time, including the distinct story of the black middle class. Placing the current crisis of the middle class in historical perspective, Samuel shows how the roots of middle-class troubles reach back to the cultural upheaval of the 1960s. The American Middle Class takes a long look at how the middle class has been winnowed away and reveals how, even in the face of this erosion, the image of the enduring middle class remains the heart and soul of the United States.

Sinking Middle Class

Sinking Middle Class PDF Author: David Roediger
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781642597486
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
A fierce, historically informed polemic against the idea that the middle class is the key to US greatness, past and future.

The Middle Class

The Middle Class PDF Author: David M. Haugen
Publisher: Greenhaven Publishing
ISBN: 9780737747775
Category : Young Adult Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
From Booklist: "Each volume in the Opposing Viewpoints Series could serve as a model-not only providing access to a wide diversity of opinions, but also stimulating readers to do further research for group discussion and individual interest. Both shrill and moderate, the selections-by experts, policy makers, and concerned citizens-include complete articles and speeches, long book excerpts, and occasional cartoons and boxed quotations-all up to date and fully documented. The editing is intelligent and unobtrusive, organizing the material around substantive issues within the general debate. Brief introductions to each section and to each reading focus the questions raised and offer no slick answers."

The American Middle Class [2 volumes]

The American Middle Class [2 volumes] PDF Author: Robert S. Rycroft
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1610697588
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1087

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Book Description
What is the "American Dream"? This book's author argues that contrary to what many believe, it is not achieving the wealth necessary to enter the top one percent but rather becoming members of the great middle class by dint of hard work and self-discipline. Americans of all classes consider themselves to be "middle class." There are Americans who by any objective standard should be considered poor who would insist they are middle class, just as other Americans who should be considered wealthy also insist they are middle class. Thinking of yourself and being thought of by others as middle class is the "American Dream" for tens of millions of people. But an enduring problem of the American middle class is the worry that the "Dream" is coming apart—that forces are lurking in the shadows waiting to steal their progress and throw them back into "poverty." This thought-provoking reference explores a disparate multitude of issues associated with being middle class in America. It addresses a range of questions and subtopics, including the meaning of the term "middle class"; how middle class status is expressed by both the majority and the various minorities that make up the American mosaic; what economic pressures are bearing down on the middle class; and how economists and others attempt to make sense of the economic issues of the day. Readers will also better understand how political institutions and public policies are shaping the way the middle class views the world; how labor, housing, education, and crime-related issues have influenced the development and growth of the middle class; the norms of the middle class versus those of other classes in society; and the role of culture and media in shaping how members of the middle class view themselves—and how they are viewed by others. This two-volume set provides a comprehensive look at the American middle class that supports student research in economics, social studies, cultural studies, and political history. The content supports teachers in their development of lesson plans and assignments that directly align with the Common Core State Standards and the recommendations of the National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies (NCSS) with respect to all ten NCSS themes.

The Anxiety of Ascent

The Anxiety of Ascent PDF Author: Scott Doidge
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351267140
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
This intriguing book re-evaluates a narrative of cultural decline that developed in the wake of Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. For Weber, and a group of influential sociologists that followed, Western modernity is marked by growing disenchantment with the beliefs and values that had previously given a sense of structure and meaning to life. Despite its unparalleled material achievements, the modern West in this reading is suffering from a crisis of meaning and is no longer able to provide authoritative answers to the only really important question: ‘What shall we do and how shall we live?’ This book examines two influential responses to this question: the German bourgeois ideal of the late nineteenth century and the mid-twentieth century American celebration of the middle class. In each period, the exploration is guided by a close reading of a contemporary and retrospective text. For Germany, Gustav Freytag’s novel Debt and Credit (1855) is read against Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks (1901), and, for the US, the domestic comedy Father Knows Best (1954–1960) is read against the cable television drama Mad Men (2007–2015). The Anxiety of Ascent casts Weber’s narrative in a more optimistic light, pointing towards the redemptive possibilities contained within everyday life. As such, it will appeal to sociologists and cultural studies scholars interested in cultural sociology, social theory, morality, meaning and the culture of middle-class life.

The New Middle Classes

The New Middle Classes PDF Author: Arthur J. Vidich
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 134923771X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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Book Description
This volume is designed first to provide a theoretical orientation and historical perspective on the rise of the middle classes in modern civilization, and second, to portray the social and political roles these classes have played and continue to play in the United States over the past century, with particular reference to the American class structure and political economy. Our method is necessarily both historical and sociological and offers an orientation for understanding contemporary American society. The essays included here were written between 1926 and 1982: they reveal both the genealogical development of sociological thought about the middle classes and the substantive content of these classes' life styles, status claims and political orientations. The present work stresses empirical studies and puts forth neither a theoretical interpretation nor a conceptual taxonomy; rather it delineates the emergence and the social and political significance of the new middle classes in relation to the classes, above and below, that preceded them.

Imagining Consumers

Imagining Consumers PDF Author: Regina Lee Blaszczyk
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801861932
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
Tells the story of American consumer society from the perspective of mass-market manufacturers and retailers. Case studies illuminate the actions of decision-makers in key firms, including the Homer Laughlin China Company, the Kohler Company and Corning Glass works.