How Class Works
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Power and Social Movement
Stanley Aronowitz
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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.
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.
Stanley Aronowitz is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the author of numerous books, including The Knowledge Factory, False Promises, and From the Ashes of the Old: American Labor and America’s Future.
“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
“Few scholars have the erudition or the courage to tackle such an expansive set of issues. We are fortunate that Aronowitz has both. He has produced an intellectually captivating book on a topic that remains as timely and significant as ever.”—Howard Kimeldorf, University of Michigan
“This splendid, scholarly, yet highly readable analysis focuses primarily on social class formations and movements in the U.S. Aronowitz writes a critical and impassioned brand of sociology reminiscent of the brilliant radical C. Wright Mills. . . . [He] writes with apparent authority, and the book is filled with rich and relevant substantive, historical, and even philosophical materials. . . . This work is highly current, having been completed after the events of 9/11. Highly recommended.”—Choice
“Once again Stanley Aronowitz has shaken up our complacent notions about social reality, and challenged his readers with a provocative reflection on past, present, and future popular movements for change. Whether one agrees with Aronowitz or not, there is something worth thinking about on every page of this, his newest, book.”—Phil Nicholson, Long Island Newsletter
Selected by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2005
ISBN: 9780300098594
Publication Date: April 10, 2003
Publication Date: April 10, 2003
272 pages, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
