The American Class Structure in an Age of Growing Inequality

by Gilbert, Dennis L.

• ISBN13: 9781412954143
• ISBN10: 1412954142
• Edition: 7th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-01-09
• Publisher: Sage Pubns

Summary

New edition - now published by SAGE's Pine Forge Press New Table of Contents with new page numbers is available by clicking 'Sample Materials and Chapters' at left to help with syllabus updates.The Seventh Edition of The American Class Structure in an Age of Growing Inequality is a current, concise treatment of America's ever-changing class structure. Author Dennis Gilbert asks a deceptively simple question: Why is social inequality in America increasing? This question is answered through discussion of nine key variables and the best historical and contemporary empirical studies of class inequality in American society, providing students with a broad overview of this social issue.With fresh data on income, wealth, earnings, residential segregation by income, and other topics, The American Class Structure describes a consistent pattern of growing inequality in the United States since the early 1970s. Focusing on the socioeconomic core of the American class system, Gilbert addresses why class and inequality disparities are ever increasing by examining changes in the economy, family life, and politics in search of an answer-with a praised writing style that readily draws students into the debate. New to This Edition! Boasts updated data on income, wealth, earnings, occupation, poverty, class segregation in residential patterns, and politics to provide the most current material on social mobility Features a new section on Bourdieu and coverage of Lareau's new research on child rearing Provides updates in nearly every chapter, including current research on marriage patterns and a 10-year assessment of the 1996 welfare reform and its effects Presents an analysis of data on intergenerational occupational mobility from the 1970s to 2004 that shows the increase in downward mobility and a corresponding decrease in upward mobility Includes first-person accounts from the PBS documentary People Like Us in the chapter about position and prestige to illustrate vividly the human emotion wrapped up in class issues Incorporates a revised glossaryInstructor Resources on CD are available to qualified instructors (contact Customer Care at 1-800-818-7243 or [e-mail] )Intended Audience This unique text is ideal for Social Stratification, Social Class, or Social Inequality courses in departments of sociology.

Table of Contents

About the Author	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii
Social Class in America	p. 1
Karl Marx	p. 3
Max Weber	p. 7
Three Issues and Ten Variables	p. 10
What Are Social Classes?	p. 11
An American Class Structure	p. 12
Is the American Class Structure Changing?	p. 14
Conclusion	p. 17
Key Terms Defined in the Glossary	p. 17
Suggested Readings	p. 17
Position and Prestige	p. 19
W. Lloyd Warner: Prestige Classes in Yankee City	p. 20
Prestige Class as a Concept	p. 23
How Many Classes?	p. 23
Class Structure of the Metropolis	p. 26
Prestige of Occupation	p. 30
Occupations and Social Classes	p. 33
People Like Us	p. 33
Conclusion: Perception of Rank and Strata	p. 35
Key Terms Defined in the Glossary	p. 37
Suggested Readings	p. 37
Social Class, Occupation, and Social Change	p. 38
Middletown: 1890 and 1924	p. 39
Middletown Revisited	p. 40
Industrialization and the Transformation of the National Class Structure	p. 41
The National Upper Class	p. 42
The Industrial Working Class	p. 44
The New Middle Class	p. 46
National Occupational System	p. 47
The Transformations of the American Occupational Structure	p. 49
From Agricultural to Postindustrial Society	p. 51
Women Workers in Postindustrial Society	p. 53
Transformation of the Black Occupational Structure	p. 55
Wages in the Age of Growing Inequality	p. 56
Growing Inequality of Wages: Why?	p. 60
Harrison and Bluestone: New Corporate Strategies	p. 61
Frank and Cook: Winner Take All	p. 63
Conclusion	p. 64
Key Terms Defined in the Glossary	p. 65
Suggested Readings	p. 66
Wealth and Income	p. 68
The Income Parade	p. 69
Lessons From the Parade	p. 73
The Distribution of Income	p. 75
Sources of Income	p. 77
Income Shares	p. 78
Taxes and Transfers: The Government as Robin Hood?	p. 79
How Many Poor?	p. 81
Women and the Distribution of Household Income	p. 81
The Distribution of Wealth	p. 82
Trends in the Distribution of Wealth	p. 85
Trends in the Distribution of Income	p. 87
Income Dynamics	p. 89
Changing Federal Tax Rates	p. 89
Conclusion	p. 91
Key Terms Defined in the Glossary	p. 92
Suggested Readings	p. 92
Socialization, Association, Lifestyles, and Values	p. 93
Bourdieu: The Varieties of Capital	p. 94
Children's Conception of Social Class	p. 95
Kohn: Class and Socialization	p. 96
Lareau: Child Rearing Observed	p. 99
School and Marriage	p. 102
Marriage Styles	p. 104
Blue-Collar Marriages and Middle-Class Models	p. 107
Social Class and Domestic Violence	p. 111
Informal Association Among Adults	p. 113
Formal Associations	p. 115
Separate Lives	p. 116
Conclusion	p. 119
Key Terms Defined in the Glossary	p. 120
Suggested Readings	p. 120
Social Mobility: The Societal Context	p. 122
How Much Mobility?	p. 123
Wealth Mobility	p. 126
Social Mobility of Women	p. 126
Circulation and Structural Mobility	p. 128
Declining Social Mobility	p. 129
Conclusion	p. 130
Key Terms Defined in the Glossary	p. 130
Suggested Readings	p. 131
Family, Education, and Career	p. 132
Blau and Duncan: Analyzing Mobility Models	p. 134
Jencks on Equality	p. 137
Who Goes to College?	p. 141
College and the Careers of Women and Minorities	p. 144
Conclusion	p. 145
Key Terms Defined in the Glossary	p. 147
Suggested Readings	p. 147
Elites, the Capitalist Class, and Political Power	p. 148
Three Perspectives on Power	p. 149
Mills: The National Power Elite	p. 149
Mills, His Critics, and the Problem of Elite Cohesion	p. 152
Power Elite or Ruling Class?	p. 154
Who Rules?	p. 154
The National Capitalist Class: Economic Basis	p. 158
The National Capitalist Class: Social Basis	p. 162
The National Capitalist Class: Participation in Government	p. 165
Money and Politics	p. 168
Business Lobbies	p. 171
Policy-Planning Groups	p. 172
Indirect Mechanisms of Capitalist-Class Influence	p. 173
The Capitalist-Class Resurgence	p. 175
Conclusion	p. 176
Key Terms Defined in the Glossary	p. 177
Suggested Readings	p. 178
Class Consciousness and Class Conflict	p. 179
Marx and the Origins of Class Consciousness	p. 181
Richard Centers and Class Identification	p. 183
Correlates of Class Identification	p. 184
Married Women and Class Identification	p. 185
Class Identification, Political Opinion, and Voting	p. 186
Bott: Frames of Reference	p. 187
Elections and the Democratic Class Struggle	p. 188
Social Class and Party Identification and Support for Social Programs	p. 191
Class and Political Participation	p. 192
Trends in Class Partisanship	p. 193
Class Conflict and the Labor Movement	p. 194
The Postwar Armistice: Unions in the Age of Shared Prosperity	p. 196
Labor in Decline	p. 197
Conclusion	p. 200
Key Terms Defined in the Glossary	p. 201
Suggested Readings	p. 201
The Poor, the Underclass, and Public Policy	p. 203
The Beginnings of Welfare: Roosevelt	p. 205
Rediscovery of Poverty: Kennedy and Johnson	p. 206
The Official Definition of Poverty	p. 207
How Many Poor?	p. 210
Who Are the Poor?	p. 210
Trends in Poverty	p. 213
The Underclass and the Transitory Poor	p. 214
Restructuring Welfare	p. 216
The Mystery of Persistent Poverty	p. 219
Conclusion	p. 224
Key Terms Defined in the Glossary	p. 226
Suggested Readings	p. 226
The American Class Structure and Growing Inequality	p. 228
How Many Classes Are There?	p. 229
The Capitalist Class	p. 231
The Upper-Middle Class	p. 233
The Middle Class	p. 233
The Working Class	p. 234
The Working Poor	p. 235
The Underclass	p. 235
Growing Inequality	p. 236
Why?	p. 238
Vital Signs	p. 240
Glossary	p. 241
Bibliography	p. 253
Note on Statistical Sources	p. 271
Credits	p. 273
Index	p. 275
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