Social classes Books

Book SynopsisExamining how writers and musicians respond to attempts to define and categorize inequality in moral terms, Culture, the Arts and Inequality: American Artists and Social Justice analyses the writers and artists who challenge the moral categories through which inequality has been maintained and mobilized.Beginning with the work of Langston Hughes, whose fears for the African-American community echo fifty years later in Stevie Wonderâs urban chronicles, and including key American voices such as Nelson Algren, Thomas McGrath, Ann Petry and Gwendolyn Brooks, as well as âœGodfather of Rapâ Gil Scott Heron, this book tackles the mechanisms that compelled writers and musicians to re-assert the worth and value of those they wrote about, opposing the fixing in place of moral classifications applied to cultures and people deemed of little worth. Without adequate analysis of those classifications, and particularly the role of moral attribution in identifying and categorizing thos

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Book SynopsisTranslocality, Entrepreneurship and Middle Class Across Eurasia is a comprehensive, multi-sited ethnography about the unfolding of capitalism across Eurasia and the advent of a new middle class since the late Soviet era. Based on extensive fieldwork, the book follows three generations of ethnic Kyrgyz in three distinct eras and sites: The early bazaar traders of Novosibirsk (Russia), the post-2000 middlemen operating in Guangzhou (China) and the new entrepreneurs' who have emerged at home in Kyrgyzstan around 2015. The book advocates translocality as an innovative concept to better understand the dialectic of mobility and emplacement in contemporary livelihoods and value chains that transgress not only political borders, but also less tangible socio-cultural boundaries. Through this lens, the chapters forcefully demonstrate how ways of business-making align or conflict with notions of ethnic belonging, diaspora, sociability or gender, in and in-between various locati

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Book SynopsisBorn Emma Watkins, the Duchess of Rutland is the daughter of a farmer from Knighton, Powys. She worked as an estate agent, marketing properties in Worcester, and later as an interior designer. Today, the Duchess runs the commercial activities of Belvoir Castle, including shooting parties, weddings and a range of furniture. She has presented on various television programmes, including ITV's Castles, Keeps and Country Homes, appeared in an episode of Alan Titchmarsh on Capability Brown, and has produced a book about Belvoir Castle.In 2021, the Duchess created a podcast titled Duchess, where she interviews chatelaines of castles and stately homes throughout the United Kingdom. In her podcast's first season, her interviewees included Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill of Blenheim Palace and Lady Mansfield of Scone Palace.Watkins married David Manners, 11th Duke of Rutland, in 1992. The pair have five children.Trade ReviewThe Duchess does indeed seem a remarkable woman . . . this is an engaging book -- Lynn Barber * Daily Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisSuccessfully bringing together accessible readings that cover the broad range of issues of importance to those studying politics and society, this new edition of Power and Inequality provides a unique mix of theoretical and empirical pieces, such as state and electoral politics, that address both classic issues in political sociology and more recent developments, such as globalization. With strong integration of race and gender throughout, this collection offers a coherent analysis of power that reflects the contributions of a variety of critical perspectives, including Marxism, feminism, critical race theory, postmodernism, and power structure theory.Table of ContentsContentsAcknowledgementsPrefaceIntroductionThe End of Capitalism or the End of the World?That's What They Call Democracy: Capitalism, Democracy & the StateSection I. Critical Theories of PowerThe Fetishism of CommoditiesThe New Forms of ControlHegemonyThe Body of the CondemnedRace and CultureWomen as the Subjects of FeminismSection II. The State: TheoryThe State as SuperstructureDefining the Class Dominance ViewA Feminist Theory of the StateRacial Politics and the Racial StateDomhoff, Mills, and Slow PowerSection III. The State: PracticeThe Politics of Income and Wealth InequalityA Right to the City? Race, Class, and Neoliberalism in Post-Katrina New OrleansVoter Suppression: The Attack on RightsThe Construction of ConsentPacification and the Police: A Critique of the Police Militarization ThesisSection IV. Media and IdeologyManufacturing ConsentStill Manufacturing ConsentYellow Ribbons and Spat-Upon Veterans: Making Soldiers the Means and Ends of WarNews for All the PeopleThe Future of Inequality: Polarization, Gridlock, and Global WarmingSection V. The Nation-State and the Global EconomyThe Making of Global CapitalismThe Multipolar MomentThe New ImperialismThe Twin Towers as MetaphorSection VI. War, Genocide, and RepressionWar Making and State Making as Organized Crime 243Getting Away with Murder (Almost): A Genocide PrimerThe New Jim CrowSection VII. Revolution and Social MovementsThe Structuring of ProtestRevolution Against the RevolutionWing Populism in AmericaNoam Chomsky and Charles Derber – Interview

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Book SynopsisThis poignant book examines poverty, wealth and inequality in the UK, and provides insight into its history, its present-day forms and possible routes to its eradication.The book demonstrates how poverty, wealth and inequality are constructed in the UK, noting that it is not an innate part of the human experience, but a phenomenon which is constructed by economic and social circumstances. Using work ranging from Malthus' interrogation of the natural right of the poor to full support in [] society' to more contemporary approaches, including Thomas Picketty''s Capitalism in the Twenty First Century, the authors examine various forms of poverty, wealth and inequality in the UK, using the UK Household Longitudinal Study, Understanding Society, dataset to ground their findings in quantitative evidence. The book concludes with an assessment of what is required to potentially end poverty in the UK, and a call to apply evidence-based research to the reshapTable of Contents1.Introduction: Understanding Society: Poverty, wealth and inequality in the UK. 2.Understanding Society: Subjectivity, datasets and methodological approaches. 3.Extreme Poverty: A structural inequality? 4.The top 10%: Income and Wealth Inequality. 5.Inequality and Devolution. Localised solutions to poverty and inequality. 6.Child Poverty: creating intergenerational poverty. 7.Conclusion: An evidence-based policy agenda for ending poverty

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Book SynopsisNewcastle, London, America. You can go anywhere, it's still the same old shit. People just getting by, in any way they know how. But I tell you what they don't have, they don't have a 1 Thursday!17-year-old Jen and Stacey are best friends. Since forever.Stacey always dreamed of being a dancer. And she's actually got the talent for it. Only her school career advisor hasn't even been to London, let alone heard of Urdang. Jen is smart. Like Oxbridge smart. But all smart' gives her is the ability to see that there's no use trying to change the story prewritten for her, growing up in an underfunded and forgotten Bradford in the 2010s.They only have one place they can escape to Club Ocean on a Thursday night. Freedom for Jen and Stacey. A beautiful and hilarious coming-of-age story, Kat Rose-Martin''s 1 Thursdays captures and celebrates the trials and tribulations of what it means to be young, Northern and working class, when for one Vodka-blurred second, you're allowed to forg

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Book SynopsisSocial class in later life: Power, identity and lifestyle provides the most up-to-date collection of new and emerging research relevant to contemporary debates on the relationship between class, culture, and later life.Trade Review"Anyone interested in social gerontology will want this short edited volume on their bookshelves - for the references and for the substantive content of the chapters." Sociology of Health & Fitness "This eloquent, thought-provoking collection will be essential reading for scholars of ageing and all with an interest in policy linked to ageing." Professor Sara Arber, Centre for Research on Ageing and Gender (CRAG), University of Surrey "A most welcome collection that provides a much-needed and up-to-date orientation on the open frontiers of class across the life course." Martin Kohli, European University Institute and Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences "A much-needed collection on social class and older age which looks critically at the constraints placed on older people and the emerging cultures of later life." Journal of Social Policy "This fascinating edited volume brings together top-notch scholars who each cast a unique lens on a rarely studied topic. A must-read for students of social gerontology, stratification, and inequalities." Professor Deborah Carr, Chair, Department of Sociology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ "An exciting collection which successfully sets out to re-invigorate the consideration of class in gerontology. The editors have done a fantastic job of bringing the diverse positions adopted by the contributors into dialogue with each other." Professor James Nazroo, Sociology and CCSR, University of ManchesterTable of ContentsIntroduction ~ Marvin Formosa and Paul Higgs; Social class structures and social mobility: the background context ~ Wendy Bottero; Ageing and class in a globalised world ~ Chris Phillipson; Measuring social class in later life ~ Alexandra Lopes; Social class, age and identity in later life ~ Martin Hyde and Ian Rees Jones Class, pensions and old-age security ~ Elizangela Storelli and John Williamson; Class and health inequalities in later life ~ Ian Rees Jones and Paul Higgs; Class, care and caring ~ Christina Victor; Social work, class and later life ~ Trish Hafford-Letchfield; The changing significance of social class in later life ~ Marvin Formosa and Paul Higgs.

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Book SynopsisThis book is the first to offer an uncompromising look at the English Defence League (EDL), aiming to alter thinking about working-class politics and the rise of right-wing nationalism in de-industrialised English towns and cities.Trade Review"The achievement of this book that it is prepared to make a case for such a vision from within the horizons of one of the most cramped, defensive, melancholic and self-destructive corners of the working class landscape." - Universal Siblinghood"[This book] should be an obligatory reading for anyone attempting to understand the increasing anti-establishment resentment against the self-serving elites across the West." Journal of Extreme Anthropology"An honest book that critiques, questions, and debates the relationship between an unfair neo-liberal society, working-class people and the rise of the right". Lisa Mckenzie, London School of Economics & Political Science"If the Western left don't pay heed to what Winlow et al have to say, then it could be curtains forever." Sputnik News"Compelling reading...a provocative, invigorating and critical analysis of contemporary political landscapes where simplistic left/right distinctions no longer apply." Elaine Campbell, Newcastle University'In their brilliantly-researched work, the authors show what a disaster the ‘mainstream’ left’s embrace of liberalism has been for traditional working-class communities’ Neil Clark, journalist."An unapologetically bleak account of contemporary Britain, cutting angrily and incisively through the thickets of liberal dogma. Essential reading." Mark Carrigan, Digital Fellow, The Sociological Review"This brilliant book shows why the downfall of the left is a post-GFC and post-Brexit condition which, without action, could become permanent." Steve Redhead, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia"A fast(er) moving novel take on how New Labour and the liberal left media created the circumstances in which the English Defense League would grow and of how UKIP and the EDL are linked.” Danny Dorling, University of OxfordTable of ContentsIntroduction; Dead Politics; The Fickle Parent; Redundant; The Hated Centre; The Scapegoat; Mourning and Melancholia in the EDL; Conclusion: Begin from the Beginning; Postscript - Brexit.

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Book SynopsisWho is working class today and how do political parties gain their support? This insightful book proposes what needs to be done to address the issues of the 'new working class'. It provides practical recommendations for political parties to reconnect with the electorate and regain trust.Trade Review"As we continue to feel our political and cultural ground shifting beneath us Claire Ainsley's reframing of the debate is both illuminating and a stark warning." Michael Sheen, actor, writer and director "A thorough and sympathetic analysis of the new working class that should serve as a bible for policy makers who believe that this important group should no longer go ignored....excellent" Deborah Mattinson, leading political pollster and co-founder of Britain Thinks "A powerful call to action for policy makers and political leaders to develop coherent and substantive policy programmes that can genuinely engage voters with the democratic system and safe guard it for the future....systematic and evidence based." Rosie Campbell, Birkbeck College, University of London "Packed with hard analysis and fresh policy ideas, Claire Ainsley's book is a rallying cry for the new working class. Politicians of all parties should wake up and listen." Frances O'Grady TUC General Secretary "At its core, this story is about power ... In introducing the new marginalised working class, Claire Ainsley brings impressive clarity and policies to reconnect politicians and ordinary people." Guy Goodwin, NatCen "People on low incomes face so many daily struggles that politics can seem removed and even irrelevant. Claire has hit the nail on the head with this excellent book. Let's hope it encourages a wider debate on our struggling democratic system." Dann Kenningham, National Coordination, ATD Fourth WorldTable of ContentsIntroduction: The New Working Class; Defining the new working class; Do policies matter?; Families and health: attitudes and policies; Work and the economy: attitudes and policies; Homes and communities: attitudes and policies; Democracy: attitudes and reform; Conclusion: How to win hearts, minds and votes.

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Book SynopsisAround 1 in 10 children born in the UK are fathered by men under the age of 25, and this book tackles the overlooked views and needs of these young fathers. Challenging negative popular and media discourses, this book showcases future policy and practice directions designed to nurture the potential of these young men and their children.

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Book SynopsisThis landmark book charts the rollercoaster history of both rich and poor, and the mechanisms that link them. Stewart Lansley examines the ideological rifts that have driven society back to the divisions of the past and asks why rich and poor citizens are still judged by very different standards.Trade Review“A resource that can help us make up our own minds about extremes of wealth and poverty, privilege and want, instead of being encouraged to ‘other’ welfare claimants and kid ourselves we share the interests of the profiteering one per cent. We should arm ourselves with it in all our anti-poverty struggles.” Cost of Living“The key takeaway of this excellent history is that poverty cannot be fought effectively, unless we also tackle the social and economic inequality that creates it.” Labour Hub“Crucially, the book extends our understanding of inequality by showing the clear, dependent relationship, between poverty and wealth creation. The book forces readers to confront, not just the reliance of the rich on the poor to make money, but also the long-standing and stubborn nature of this relationship in Britain”. Brave New Europe ”A vivid description of the fall and rise of poverty and inequality... impressive survey and analysis of 200 years of inequality." Journal of Social Policy “Important....passionate and thoroughly researched.” Political QuarterlyTable of ContentsIntroduction: Knighthoods for the rich, penalties for the poor Part 1: 1800-1939 1. Hierarchical discipline 2. Britain’s gilded age 3. Public penury and private ostentation 4. A roller-coaster ride Part 2: 1940-59 5. The future belongs to us 6. Britain’s ‘New Deal' 7. Brave new world 8. A shallow consensus Part 3: 1960-79 9. The rediscovery of poverty 10. Poorer under Labour 11. Consolidation or advance? 12. Peak equality Part 4: 1980-96 13. Don’t mention the 'p' word 14. Zapping Labour 15. The dark shadow of the Poor Law 16. The great widening 17. Money worship Part 5: 1997-2010 18. The elephant in the room 19. Still born to rule 20. I'm not Mother Teresa 21. The house of cards 22. The good, the bad and the ugly Part 6: 2011-20 23. Divide and rule: playing politics with poverty 24. A leaner state 25. Burning injustice 26. Growing rich in their sleep 27. The high-inequality, high-poverty cycle Afterword: COVID-19 and 'the polo season'

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Book SynopsisThe alarming history of the British, and European, aristocracy - from Argyll to Wellington and from Byron to Tolstoy, stories of madness, murder, misery, greed and profligacy.From Regency playhouses, to which young noblemen would go simply in order to insult someone to provoke a duel that might further their reputation, to the fashionable gambling clubs or ''hells'' which were springing up around St James''s in the mid-eighteenth century, the often bizarre doings of aristocrats. An eighteenth-century English gentleman was required to have what was known as ''bottom'', a shipping metaphor that referred to stability. Taking part in a duel was a bold statement that you had bottom. William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne certainly had bottom, if not a complete set of gonads following his duel with Colonel Fullarton, MP for Plympton. Both men missed with their first shots, but the colonel fired again and shot off Shelborne''s right testicle. Despite being hit, Shelborne del

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Book SynopsisBringing together the most recent empirical evidence and the latest theoretical debates, this fully revised new edition gets to grips with a broad range of inequalities in people’s lives. Examining social class, gender, ethnicity, disability and migration status, it demonstrates how these play out in relation to education, health, poverty, neighbourhood and housing and how they cumulate across the life course. Richly illustrated with figures and concrete examples showing the distribution of life chances across social groups, the book demonstrates how people’s lives are structured by inequalities across multiple dimensions. Comprehensive topical chapters are framed by an exploration of the meaning and interpretation of inequalities and a discussion highlighting the important intersections between them. With new chapters on disability and international migration, this updated edition continues to provide a wide-ranging but detailed and theoretically sophisticated account of contemporary inequalities that will be invaluable to undergraduate and masters students alike.Trade Review‘Platt’s brilliant razor-sharp forensic analysis not only reveals the shocking disparities between rich and poor but uniquely shows how social class and the inequalities of ethnicity, gender, migration and disability intersect and affect people’s intimate and lived lives.’Heidi Mirza, Emeritus Professor, UCL Institute of Education ‘With inequality now at the forefront of political debate, this outstanding book provides a clear, comprehensive and nuanced overview of what is known about the extent and nature of inequalities on key dimensions and the linkages across them.’Brian Nolan, University of Oxford

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Book SynopsisClass is not only amongst the oldest and most controversial of all concepts in social science, but also a topic which has fascinated, amused, incensed and galvanized the general public. But what exactly is a ‘class’? How do sociologists study and measure it, and how does it correspond to everyday understandings of social difference in the twenty-first century? In a time when inequality has dramatically returned to the social scientific and political agenda, this accessible and lively book explores these questions and more. It takes readers through the key theoretical traditions in class research, the major controversies that have shaken the field and the continuing effects of class difference, class struggle and class inequality across a range of domains. This new edition covers the latest research and scholarship and includes extended discussions of race, the rise of national populism, and the reconfigurations of class in a global age. This book will appeal to students and scholars across the social sciences, and anyone wanting to get a handle on this provocative concept.Trade Review‘Will Atkinson captures the richness of theories and debates about social class in a brilliant new edition that is both timely and topical. This excellent book engages with a highly contested area in a way that is both accessible and fascinating.’Diane Reay, University of Cambridge‘Atkinson’s book accomplishes two crucially important things: it explains why the concept of class is so confusing and, seemingly, muddled, while simultaneously demonstrating that it remains absolutely indispensable to social scientific research. This is a clear, cogent and, above all, useful book.’Elliot B. Weininger, The State University of New York, BrockportTable of Contents1 IntroductionPart I Class Concepts2 Class as Exploitation3 Class as Life Chances4 Class as Misrecognition5 IntersectionsPart II Class Struggles6 Social (Im)mobility7 Educational Inequality8 Health, Life and Death9 Politics and Identity10 Globalization, Space and PlaceCoda

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Book SynopsisA superyacht is a boat that exceeds 30 metres in length, with some surpassing even 100 metres—more than a football field. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, there were about 2,000 of these vessels in the world; two decades and a financial crisis later, there are three times as many. Grégory Salle argues that these are not whimsical fads: on the contrary, luxury yachting highlights the social exclusivity of the wealthiest and the environmental waste they emit. Rather than being simply the plaything of billionaires with extravagant lifestyles, the superyacht offers a disconcerting reflection of the world as it is. A contemporary form of ostentatious seclusion, a magnifying glass for social inequalities, the superyacht leads us straight to the great questions of our time, including the question of ecocide. From class struggle to the over-consumption of the rich, from tax evasion to environmental crime, from eco-bleaching to the differential management of illegalities, to pull the thread of super yachting is to unspool the whole ball of capitalism.Trade Review‘Synecdoche is when a part stands in for the whole, and no part better represents the rise of a reckless, self-indulgent and damaging global plutocracy than superyachts. Once a rarity, there are now more than 5,000 of these monstrous floating mega-mansions, busy destroying marine ecosystems, undermining local, national and international law, and massively avoiding taxes. Grégory Salle paints a vivid picture of how these superyachts – costing hundreds of millions to build and many millions every year to operate – are a concrete expression of the grotesqueries of our current social disorder.’Naomi Oreskes, Harvard University‘Superyachts offers a deep dive into the world of the wealthiest. It is also a great case study for green criminology. In this breathtaking – and often humorous – book, Grégory Salle shows how capitalism is definitely destroying the planet.’Gwenola Ricordeau, California State UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsAbbreviations & acronymsPreface to the English edition1. A colossus at anchor2. One form of excess can conceal another3. Floating palaces4. Specimens5. UHNWI6. Yachting lifestyle7. The abode of production8. Amsterdam’s red party9. ISF-IFI & Co.10. Riding the financial storm11. Conspicuous seclusion12. The political geography of luxury sailing13. Playing the eco-friendly card (greenwashing)14. Posidonia15. The Marine Observatory16. At sea/in a meeting17. Red-handed18. When Capitalocene and eco-socialism take to the water… Notes and references

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Book SynopsisThis study explores pre- and extra-marital relationships among the gentry and nobility of the north of England from 1450 to 1640: the keeping of mistresses, the taking of lovers, the birth of illegitimate children and the fate of those children. It challenges assumptions about the extent to which such activities declined in the period, and hence about the impact of Protestantism and other changes to the culture of the elite. A major contribution to the literature on marriage and sexual relationships, family, kinship and gender, it is aimed at an academic readership in the fields of social and political history.Table of ContentsIntroduction1 Background and legal framework2 The extent of bastardy among the elite3 The role and status of the mistress4 Gentlewomen and their lovers5 The ‘wronged’ partner6 The bastard childrenConclusionIndex

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Book SynopsisThe fall and rise of the English upper class explores the role traditionalist worldviews, articulated by members of the historic upper-class, have played in British society in the shadow of her imperial and economic decline in the twentieth century. Situating these traditionalist visions alongside Britain’s post-Brexit fantasies of global economic resurgence and a socio-cultural return to a green and pleasant land, Smith examines Britain’s Establishment institutions, the estates of her landed gentry and aristocracy, through to an appetite for nostalgic products represented with pastoral or pre-modern symbolism. It is demonstrated that these institutions and pursuits play a central role in situating social, cultural and political belonging. Crucially these institutions and pursuits rely upon a form of membership which is grounded in a kinship idiom centred upon inheritance and descent: who inherits the houses of privilege, inherits England.Trade Review"An astonishing exploration of a contemporary moment – the one that exploded with Brexit -- this book creeps up on late modernity in a way that no direct address could. Who would think to juxtapose aristocracy, inheritance and nationhood with change, empiricism and contingency through the vernacular idiom of ‘the house’? Smith shows how the idiom of the house perpetuates a world simultaneously lost and made, problematising Englishness in the most profound way."Professor Dame Marilyn Strathern, University of Cambridge"Much has been written about the supposed downfall of the aristocracy. But that doesn’t explain their ongoing presence in society, nor our continued fascination with them. The Fall and Rise of Britain's Upper-Classes makes a distinct intervention into the sociology of the elites through the concept of ‘the house society’. Arguing that ‘idioms’ of the aristocratic classes ‘haunt’ contemporary Britain, Smith argues that capitalism in England arose out of a landed aristocracy, and so logics of capital have always already been imbricated by inheritance, kinship and traditionalism. The book deftly combines a huge range of case studies, from close readings of political memoirs to an ethnography of a bookshop, to contend that our national imagination still hinges upon this privileged group. An important contribution to research on social class and privilege, Smith’s book is a rare account of the group whose power is in its invisibility: the aristocracy."Laura Clancy, Lecturer in Media at Lancaster University and author of Running the family firm: How the royal family manages its image and our money -- .Table of ContentsList of tablesAcknowledgementsIntroduction: England’s hope and lossPart I: Fall and rise1. Houses, kinship and capital2. England as a house societyPart II: The social poetics of houses3. Imperial melancholia: Rory Stewart’s The Marches (2017)4. Arcadianism: Adam Nicolson’s Sissinghurst (2008)5. ‘Island Englishness’: Roger Scruton’s England: An Elegy (2000)Part III: Houses as kinship & capital6. The Reading Public 7. The Branded Gentry8. The fortunes of the land Conclusion: contingent remaindersReferencesIndex

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Book Synopsis*WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE IN NON-FICTION**Finalist for the National Book Award for Non-fiction*'His Name Is George Floyd is essential for our times.' Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist'An intimate, unvarnished and scrupulous account of his life...brilliantly revealing.' NEW YORK TIMESYou know how he died. This is how he lived.Who was George Floyd? What did he hope for? What was life like for him? And why has his death been the catalyst for such a powerful global response?The murder of George Floyd sparked a summer of activism and unrest all over the world in 2020, from Shetland to São Paolo, as people marched under the Black Lives Matter banner, demanding an end to racial injustice. But behind a face that would be graffitied onto countless murals, and a name that has become synonymous with civil rights, there is the reality of one man's stolen life.In His Name is George Floyd we meet the kind young boy who talked his friends out of beating up a skinny kid from another neighbourhood and then befriended him on the walk home. Big Floyd the high school American football player who ignored his coach's pleas to be more aggressive and felt queasy at the sight of blood. The man who fell victim to an opioid epidemic we are only just beginning to understand. The sensitive son and loving father, constantly in search of a better life in a society determined to write him off based on things he had no control over: where he grew up, the size of his body and the colour of his skin.Drawing upon hundreds of interviews with friends and family members, His Name Is George Floyd reveals the myriad ways that structural racism shaped Floyd's life and death - from his forebears' roots in slavery to an underfunded education, the overpolicing of his community and the devastating snare of the prison system. By offering us an intimate portrait of this one, emblematic life, Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa deliver a powerful and moving exploration of how a man who simply wanted to breathe ended up touching the world.Trade ReviewSince we know George Floyd's death with tragic clarity, we must know Floyd's America - and life - with tragic clarity. His Name Is George Floyd is essential for our times. -- Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist'In this age of misinformation, where the victims of police killings are made out to be the problem, this humanising of Floyd is necessary... Samuels and Olorunnipa's greatest triumph is placing Floyd's life in the context of white supremacy.' * Observer *An intimate, unvarnished and scrupulous account of his life...brilliantly revealing. * New York Times *Detailed, vivid and moving. * Washington Post *A wondrous feat of vivid writing and deep reporting, from the way it leads the reader through George Floyd's final fateful day on earth to its masterly account of Floyd's hopes and frustrations in the larger context of race in America. -- David Maraniss, author of Barack Obama: The Story

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Book Synopsis'Hough's conversational prose reads like the voice of a blues singer, taking breaks between songs to narrate her heartbreak in verse, cajoling her audience to laugh to keep from crying' - The New York Times'Hough's writing will break your heart' - Roxane Gay, author of Difficult Women'Each one told with the wit of David Sedaris, and the insight of Joan Didion' - Telegraph 'This moving account of resilience and hard-earned agency brims with a fresh originality' - Publishers WeeklySearing and extremely personal essays from the heart of working-class America, shot through with the darkest elements the country can manifest - cults, homelessness, and hunger - while discovering light and humor in unexpected corners.As an adult, Lauren Hough has had many identities: an airman in the U.S. Air Force, a cable guy, a bouncer at a gay club. As a child, however, she had none. Growing up as a member of the infamous cult The Children of God, Hough had her own self robbed from her. The cult took her all over the globe but it wasn't until she finally left for good that Lauren understood she could have a life beyond "The Family."Along the way, she's loaded up her car and started over, trading one life for the next. Here, as she sweeps through the underbelly of America--relying on friends, family, and strangers alike--she begins to excavate a new identity even as her past continues to trail her and color her world, relationships, and perceptions of self.At once razor-sharp, profoundly brave, and often very, very funny, the essays in Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing interrogate our notions of ecstasy, queerness, and what it means to live freely. Each piece is a reckoning: of survival, identity, and how to reclaim one's past when carving out a future.Trade ReviewLauren Hough's extraordinary essay collection Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing is as powerful as it is poignant. So many moments in this exceptionally crafted essays brought me to tears and before long I would find myself laughing as Hough wielded her razor sharp wit. This is one of those rare books that will instantly become part of the literary canon and the world of letters will be better for it. * Roxane Gay, author of Difficult Women *Lauren Hough's Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing is so brilliant, so humane and pissed off and hysterically funny and thought-provoking, and so beautifully written it's hard to describe except to say that it's a book that is going to mean a lot to a lot of people, and it might cause some fights, and you better read it so you can have the pleasure of reading it and the pleasure of talking about it with everyone. * Elizabeth McCracken, author of Bowlaway *Lauren Hough is the best new voice I've read in years: fiercely honest, funny, brazen, and unrepentant. * Heather Havrilesky, Ask Polly columnist and author of What If This Were Enough? *Hough's direct, no bullshit manner will have you laughing and nodding your head in agreement. If you are a fan of memoir and books about moving through life overcoming any obstacle in your way or, if, like me, you love reading about strong queer people - then this book is for you! * Christina Pascucci-Ciampa, Boston Magazine *[Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing] is a killer debut, as riveting for its content as it is for its captivating style. * BookPage, '2021 preview: Most anticipated nonfiction' *These essays mine [Hough's] eclectic, fascinating life and her efforts to create her own identity. Plus, she's a fabulous writer. * Deborah Dundas, The Toronto Star *An edgy and unapologetic memoir in essays. * Kirkus Reviews *This moving account of resilience and hard-earned agency brims with a fresh originality. * Publishers Weekly *Each one told with the wit of David Sedaris, and the insight of Joan Didion * Telegraph *Hough's conversational prose reads like the voice of a blues singer, taking breaks between songs to narrate her heartbreak in verse, cajoling her audience to laugh to keep from crying * The New York Times *

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Book SynopsisFascism's ascent to power across Europe in the 1920s & 30s marks one of the greatest historical defeats of the left in history. Far from inevitable, this catastrophic defeat was resisted at every turn by Marxists of varying stripes who tried, unsuccessfully, to push the mass communist and social democratic parties to organize an opposition to the rising movements of violent reaction. This important volume offers the most complete selection of Marxist writings on fascism from this period in any language and provides invaluable lessons for contemporary readers concerned with today's far-right.Trade Review"Marxists in the Face of Fascism, with a very useful introduction by David Beetham, is an unrivaled and vital piece, allowing us to grasp the major contribution of inter-war Marxism, in its great diversity of theoretical approaches and political orientations, and to deepening our understanding of fascism and to antifascist practice"—Ugo Palheta, author La Possibilité du Fascisme

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Book SynopsisWhy do we feel uncomfortable talking about class? Why is it taboo? Why do people often address class through coded terminology like trashy, classy, and snobby? How does discriminatory language, or how do conscious or unconscious derogatory attitudes, or the anticipation of such behaviors, impact those from poor and working class backgrounds when they straddle class? Through 26 narratives of individuals from poor and working class backgrounds – ranging from students, to multiple levels of administrators and faculty, both tenured and non-tenured – this book provides a vivid understanding of how people can experience and straddle class in the middle, upper, or even elitist class contexts of the academy.Through the powerful stories of individuals who hold many different identities--and naming a range of ways they identify in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age, ability, and religion, among others--this book shows how social class identity and classism impact people's experience in higher education and why we should focus more attention on this dimension of identity. The book opens by setting the foundation by examining definitions of class, discussing its impact on identity, and summarizing the literature on class and what it can tell us about the complexities of class identity, its fluidity, sometimes performative nature, and the sense of dissonance it can provoke.This book brings social class identity to the forefront of our consciousness, conversations, and behaviors and compels those in the academy to recognize classism and reimagine higher education to welcome and support those from poor and working class backgrounds. Its concluding chapter proposes means for both increasing social class consciousness and social class inclusivity in the academy. It is a compelling read for everyone in the academy, not least for those from poor or working class backgrounds who will find validation and recognition and draw strength from its vivid stories.Trade Review"Straddling Class in the Academy is a must read for students and educators. Ardoin, martinez, and their contributors masterfully challenge the myth that class is invisible by sharing their lived experiences navigating class and classism in and outside of the academy. The intersectional nature of contributors’ narratives and Ardoin and martinez’s analysis highlights the powerful effects of classism and calls for action if we are to create more inclusive and socially just institutions."Rosemary J. Perez, Assistant Professor, School of EducationIowa State University“Straddling Class in the Academy is an important book, filled with honest and powerful narratives from students, staff and faculty. It expands our understanding of poor and working class backgrounds and informs our next steps in addressing the dynamics of social class in our college classrooms and workspaces. Read this book and discover truths that confirm our own reality about social class on campus, challenge us to think differently, and compel us to take action.”Paulette M. Dalpes, Vice President of Student AffairsCommunity College of Aurora“Grasping social class identity—not only what it is, but how it also affects one’s life—is essential for higher education professionals. Ardoin and martinez assembled stories of social class identity to illuminate its complexity. This book begins the conversation on pervasive classism within the academy. This needed contribution draws on the power of stories to highlight how social class permeates higher education contexts, professional roles, and lived realities.”David J. Nguyen, Assistant Professor of Higher Education & Student AffairsOhio University“Ardoin and martinez have compiled a vital resource for all in academia. Together with their co-authors, they provide invaluable first-hand accounts that help readers take ownership of their own class identity while also providing possibility models and pathways for persistence. Perhaps the largest contribution this book makes to higher education is that it provides narratives and tools to build campuses that serve equitably across class. This book is a must-read for all in higher education.”Peter Paquette, Dean of StudentsCoastal Carolina University"Straddling Class in the Academy belongs in any collection strong in educatior resources, offering firsthand stories designed to help students and teachers better understand their own diverse classrooms. Models of success are accompanied by narratives from students and administrators that discuss some of the basic challenges of poor and working-class attendees, offering discussions which address racism, class bias, and more in the educational process. No administrator or education holding should be without this candid collection of insights."Midwest Book Review“The takeaways from this book are enriched by the intentionality of the editors as they strived to be inclusive among the pages. Class works in tandem with other socially constructed identities to create a whole sense of self, and the diversity of race, gender, and family dynamics among others was apparent throughout the text.Although Ardoin and martinez intentionally highlight the diversity among contributors’ identities and lived experiences, they also work to illuminate ‘shared social class experiences’ between all of the contributors. These shared experiences form the ‘key learnings’ that the editors briefly described and include things like stereotype threat, imposter syndrome, code-switching, and making systemic change, among others.As you read the 26 stories in this volume you can feel the passion, and sometimes pain, of how class-based experiences have impacted the lives of so many. It is apparent that Ardoin and martinez care deeply about improving the conversations that are (or are not) happening about class in higher education. As the first book of its kind, there is no doubt that it will make a positive impact across campuses.This book would be a meaningful addition to the education and professional development of student affairs students and current practitioners. The contributors’ stories and editors’ analytical contributions provide an important introduction to the social class conversation.”Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice"What Straddling is at its core is 26 individual stories, each written in an individuals’ own words, recounting their experiences of having been raised in a poor or working-class family/neighborhood and finding, each in their own way, the wherewithal to at least attend a four-year institution and, for most of the contributors, to graduate with a bachelor’s degree and then go on to graduate work. As one might imagine, the struggles, challenges, setbacks, put-downs, confusion and, importantly, triumphs they experience on their journeys in higher education, not only while earning their degrees but sometimes even after earning their degrees and working in higher education as administrators and faculty, are sometimes difficult to grasp and appreciate. That one might not have to scratch very deep beneath the surface of these individuals to see the extent to which their poor or working-class background still affects and influences their lives in the academy is one of the most compelling aspects of the book.In order to open up the space for the contributors to tell their stories, Ardoin and martinez introduce the work with a brief primer on social class, social class identity, classism, and the narrative inquiry method used in their work. The authors also use the Introduction to tell us their stories of poor and working-class upbringing and how, after each having earned doctorates and having logged years of work experience beyond those doctoral degrees, they now find themselves “straddling” the class of their upbringing and the newly arrived at middle class in which they find themselves living and working. Right from the beginning, then, the reader is alerted that what follows is going to be a deeply personal accounting and not merely a theoretical exercise.Straddling Class in the Academy is a highly personal book, and the authors and contributors are to be commended for their courage in stepping forward and detailing their accounts, knowing that they will be read largely by those who work in a world that perhaps all too frequently is dismissive of such personal stories. But the classism that is regularly faced by the poor and working-class members of the academy, whether students, administrators, or faculty, is something that for decades, if not longer, has lingered beneath the surface. Ardoin and martinez do well by bringing these compelling stories to light."Teachers College Record“In Straddling Class in the Academy, Sonja Ardoin and becky martinez bring 26 individuals together to discuss how social class has impacted their journeys through higher education. They do this because “there is critical learning to be had from those poor or working-class backgrounds, particularly in the academy, because it is founded on and immersed in elitism” (p. 6). Each chapter focuses on a particular group of people, starting with current undergraduate students, moving to faculty and administrators, and ending with individuals who have left higher education. Within each chapter are narratives from three individuals on how they experienced class, because “stories can be used as a platform to inform higher education how it maintains social class inequities” (p. 5). The narratives are powerful, highlighting how class and continued time within the academy shape identities. Additionally, each story provides a concrete example of how higher education often excludes those from poor and working- class backgrounds. At the end of each chapter, Ardoin and martinez briefly provide their analysis of the three narratives and then conclude the book with a thematic analysis of all of the narratives. This book provides nuanced and realistic examples of how social class impacts educational journeys. This text would be appropriate for graduate courses in education.”Journal of College Student Development“Employing narrative inquiry as the methodology, each chapter includes the personal accounts of two to four individuals serving as the chapters’ shared stories, followed by a narrative analysis from Ardoin and martinez. By applying a critical lens, the authors conscientiously explore the accounts of those identifying as poor and working class and the impact this socioeconomic characteristic has had on their time within the postsecondary environment. As a whole, the text provides a thoughtful approach to examine a membership within the postsecondary environment that, as the authors note, is not frequently discussed or advocated for. Including the personal accounts of students, administrators, and faculty members who have experienced the obstacles associated with, and identify as, being a current or previous member of a poor and working-class background, Ardoin and martinez create an incredible setting to share the various life stories that shaped and influenced the journeys to and within the academy for the individuals highlighted throughout the text. The authors begin the text with a detailed explanation of the placement on social class within society, as well as within the higher education environment. Presenting a comprehensive description of social class identity, as well as the constructs of classism and social justice, the authors provide current findings and statistics that serve as an empirical foundation for the subsequent personal accounts from individuals sharing their experiences of identifying as poor or working class. The opening of the text also creates a robust groundwork for the concept of class straddling—a theme that will be routinely addressed by the included stories of the undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and administrators included within the book. The authors frame the text through several theoretical models. Through the use of these theoretical frameworks, the authors create a distinct lens for the reader to look through as they progress through the chapters and shared stories. By incorporating the noted frameworks, the authors create a unique stance on the topic; through the use of the three models, the authors construct a conceptual understanding that lends to each chapter’s narrative analysis. In Chapter 1, Ardoin and martinez identify. Overall, the text engages the reader and provides the opportunity to explore social class challenges and experiences of the many who participate in the postsecondary environment. This book serves as a welcomed contribution, providing vital insight on a topic in need of further investigation." The Review of Higher Education“Higher education is meant to be the great equalizer- and yet if we do not courageously speak about social class, and understand the lived truths of poor and working class students, we continue to underserve and ignore salient and significant dimensions of our students’ lives. Ardoin and martinez have given us words, a textbook, life stories, and a theoretical frame to further deepen our self-work and institutional work in the area of social class. Just thinking about the ripple effect of their book, which has resulted in institutions and educators doing active reflection, training, and education on social class is awe-inspiring. Their book is, and will continue to be a transformative guide, that compels all of us to ask ‘What is your class story?’”Mamta Accapadi, Vice ProvostUniversity Life at University of Pennsylvania"[The book offers] many important implications for practice. First, as institutions engage in diversity, inclusion, and justice work, they should more intentionally include social class in the conversations. Second, institutional leaders should reconsider how their policies, practices, and cultures are classed, work to address the barrier that low Socio Economic Status community members may experience. This is especially important for new practitioners transitioning into the field. Practitioners, across different levels of class, must do self-work necessary to address the classist messaging and behaviors that they have internalized. Lastly, there are ways that everyone in institutions can engage in this work because all are impacted by social class. This is important to reduce the burden of change that is often carried by marginalized people. Recognition that social class needs to be a central consideration, and continued conversations in higher education, will create space for structural, cultural, and policy changes."College Student Affairs JournalTable of ContentsForeword—Jamie Washington Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Social Class in the Academy 2. The Undergraduate Student Perspective—Narratives by Daniel Espiritu, Kevyanna Rawls, and Téa N. Wimer 3. The Graduate Student Perspective—Narratives by Constanza A. Cabello, Dylan R. Dunn, and Carmen Rivera 4. The Early Career Administrator Perspective—Narratives by Armina Khwaja Macmillan, Timothy M. Johnson, and Brenda Lee Anderson Wadley 5. The Mid Career Administrator Perspective—Narratives by Sara C. Furr, Jacinda M. Félix Haro, and Sally G. Parish 6. The Senior Administrator Perspective—Narratives by Mamta Motwani Accapadi, Thomas C. Segar, and Jeremiah Shinn 7. The Nontenured Faculty Perspective—Narratives by Loren Cannon, Raul Fernandez, and Tori Svoboda 8. The Tenured Faculty Perspective—Narratives by Nancy J. Evans, Rudy P. Guevarra Jr., and Larry D. Roper 9. The External Educator Perspective—Narratives by Briza K. Juarez, Edward Pickett III, and Roxanne Villaluz 10. Shared Social Class Experiences and the Intersectionality of Identity 11. Conclusion. Increasing Social Class Consciousness and Inclusivity in Higher Education References Authors and Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisThe progressive economics writer redefines the national conversation about American freedom “Mike Konczal [is] one of our most powerful advocates of financial reform‚ [a] heroic critic of austerity‚ and a huge resource for progressives.”—Paul KrugmanHealth insurance, student loan debt, retirement security, child care, work-life balance, access to home ownership—these are the issues driving America’s current political debates. And they are all linked, as this brilliant and timely book reveals, by a single question: should we allow the free market to determine our lives? In the tradition of Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine, noted economic commentator Mike Konczal answers this question with a resounding no. Freedom from the Market blends passionate political argument and a bold new take on American history to reveal that, from the earliest days of the republic, Americans have defined freedom as what we keep free from the control of the market. With chapters on the history of the Homestead Act and land ownership, the eight-hour work day and free time, social insurance and Social Security, World War II day cares, Medicare and desegregation, free public colleges, intellectual property, and the public corporation, Konczal shows how citizens have fought to ensure that everyone has access to the conditions that make us free. At a time when millions of Americans—and more and more politicians—are questioning the unregulated free market, Freedom from the Market offers a new narrative, and new intellectual ammunition, for the fight that lies ahead.Trade ReviewPraise for Freedom from the Market:“The Roosevelt Institute’s Konczal is one of the warriors in this fight, arguing fiercely for the need to set much narrower limits on what is left to markets than has been the case in recent decades. A powerful polemic.”—Martin Wolf, Financial Times“Freedom from the Market arrives at a moment when, as Konczal observes, millions of Americans are recovering a legacy of fighting market rule.”—Los Angeles Review of Books“Freedom from the Market has the potential to be a very important book, focusing attention on the contested, messy but crucially important intersection between social movements and the state. It provides a set of ideas that people on both sides of that divide can learn from, and a lively alternative foundation to the deracinated technocratic notions of politics, in which good policy would somehow, magically, be politically self supporting, that has prevailed up until quite recently. Strongly recommended.”—Crooked Timber“Invaluable, thoughtful and thought-provoking.”—Midwest Book Review“By identifying an alternative grammar, one that is grounded in the American past, Freedom from the Market provides a way out of the political cul-de-sac created by the failure of the market to deliver on its promises of ‘freedom.’”—Democracy: A Journal of Ideas“With carefully selected examples and lucid prose, Konczal makes a convincing case that the American project has long depended on rigorous regulation of capitalism. Progressive voters and policy makers will find plenty of ammunition for their arguments in this cogent history.”—Publishers Weekly“An economic manifesto on behalf of the 99% poorly served by the present economy.”—Kirkus Reviews“Providing solid cases where government regulations helped to give Americans a better life, this will appeal to progressives looking for a history of their movement.”—Library Journal “Freedom from the Market is an impressive book, easily one of the best I’ve read in the past several years. I cannot recommend it highly enough.”—Matt Mazewski, Commonweal “Markets will set us free—except when they won’t, don’t, can’t. In this deeply researched yet eminently readable book, Mike Konczal tells the powerful forgotten story of how American democracy once tamed markets to advance our freedom, and shows us how it could do so once again.”—Jacob Hacker, professor of political science, Yale University, and New York Times bestselling author of Winner-Take-All Politics and American Amnesia “Konczal’s analysis brilliantly dismantles the false illusions of market freedom in every sector, including finance, health care, and labor. This book explains how Americans have been hoodwinked into a coercive economy even as we were promised the opposite.”—Mehrsa Baradaran, professor of law, UC Irvine, and author of The Color of Money and How the Other Half Banks “Mike Konczal is that rare economics commentator who thinks the economy should serve people, not the other way around. Freedom from the Market reclaims from the dustbin of history the Americans who dreamed of a vastly different kind of freedom than the one we’re now taught to revere.”—Sarah Jaffe, author of Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt and Work Won’t Love You Back “Mike Konczal’s powerful historical study links political struggles over land, time, care, and education around the idea of freedom, reclaiming this familiar watchword and asking readers to think anew about its real meaning.”—Kimberly Philips-Fein, associate professor, New York University, and author of Fear City and Invisible Hands

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Book SynopsisAn original argument that environmental sustainability has been co-opted by the urban elite, along with examples from around the world of ways we can save our planet“Caring for the environment means reclaiming ecology for everyone.” —from the introduction A sustainability apartheid is emerging.More than ever, urban residents want to be green, yet to cater to their interests, a green-tech service economy has sprung up, co-opting well-intentioned concerns over sustainability to sell a resource-heavy and exclusive “lifestyle environmentalism.” This has made cities more unsustainable and inaccessible to the working class.The Sustainability Class is about those wealthy “progressive” urbanites convinced that we can save the planet through individual action, smart urbanism, green finance, and technological innovation. Authors Vijay Kolinjivadi and Aaron

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Book SynopsisAn exposé of the hidden impact of America's überwealthy on the country's economy, environmental health, housing market, and political systemEven if you don't begrudge the ultrarich their multiple vacation homes, yachts, and private jets, Burned by Billionaires chronicles how the actions of the top .01% have severe consequences for the rest of us. In chapters including Road Map to Richistan and Extractavism, upper-class traitor Chuck Collins takes down the myth of meritocracy, showing how the rich rig the game in their favor, resulting in an increasing concentration of wealth in the hands of a tiny (but growing) class of billionaires. In a wholly original argument, Collins shows the impact the ultrawealthy have on the rest of us: increasing the tax burden on ordinary working people; reducing public funding for schools, roads, and other essential infrastructure; shrinking the pool of affordable housing; and accelerating climate change with outsize emissions from superpollutant yachts and private jets. Perhaps worst of all, the concentration of wealth and power is leading to political capture, undermining the democratic principle that our votes matter equally. Lively chapters feature charts, graphs, political cartoons, and more. A final chapter on Reining in the Billionaires offers concrete prescriptions for taking power back from the billionaire class.

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Book SynopsisIn this rousing study, Alessandro Olsaretti argues that we need a new approach to fundamental questions to turn back neoliberal economic policy. The Struggle for Development and Democracy makes the case that we need significantly new theories of development and democracy to answer the problem posed by neoliberalism and the populist backlash, namely, uneven development and divisive politics. This book proposes as a first step a truly multidisciplinary humanist social science, to overcome the flaws of neoliberal economic theories, and to recover a balanced approach to theories and policies alike that is especially needed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. These led to divisive culture wars, which were compounded by the divisive populist politics. This book begins to sketch such a humanist social science, and applies it to answer one question: who is responsible for neoliberalism and the populist backlash?Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Figures  Introduction  1 Defending Theory and an Eclectic Methodology for Formulating It  2 The New Theories and the Main Hypotheses and Theses on Neoliberalism part 1 The Project and the Need for New Approaches 1 The Project and Theories of Development and Democracy  1.1 The Project and the Answers and Alternatives That It Proposes  1.2 The Project and Its Importance to Achieve a Paradigm Shift  1.3 The Significantly New Theory of Democracy Proposed  1.4 The Significantly New Theory of Development Proposed  1.5 Uneven Development, Civil Society and Engineering  1.6 The Importance of Civil Society and Universities  1.7 The Importance of the State and Defense 2 An Intellectual Journey, the Struggle for Objectivity, and Elitism  2.1 Humanism, Synthesis, and Political-Military Development  2.2 Broad Pictures and a Humanist Social Science  2.3 The Difficulties Faced by Some Intellectual Projects  2.4 McGill University and the Social Conditions for Objectivity  2.5 Aristocratic-military Elites and a Humanistic Education  2.6 Broad Pictures of Society and History and Their Importance  2.7 Implications for Cultural Studies and International Relations part 2 Continuing Gramsci's Project through a Humanist Social Science 3 Gramsci's Project and a Significantly New Theory of Democracy  3.1 Gramsci and His Legacy and Approach to Philosophy  3.2 Gramsci's Project and His Theory of Democracy  3.3 Gramsci's Project and Related Projects in Italy  3.4 Gramsci's Project and the Projects of Structural Marxists  3.5 Gramsci's Project and the Projects of Analytical Marxists  3.6 A View of Democracy That Rejects Eurocentrism  3.7 A View of Scientific Knowledge That Rejects Eurocentrism 4 A Humanist Social Science That Promotes Cultural Democracy  4.1 Gramsci's Humanist Social Science and Cultural Democracy  4.2 The Anthropological-Sociological View of Philosophy  4.3 The Contribution from Popular Culture to Theory  4.4 The Contribution from Popular Art to Theory  4.5 The Eclectic Methodology, Rhetoric, and Theory  4.6 The Contribution from Theory to Popular Culture  4.7 The Contribution from Rhetoric to Popular Culture part 3 The Methodology and the Hypotheses and Theses of the Project 5 The Theory, and the Hypotheses and Theses on Elites  5.1 Specialization and the Origins of One-Sidedness  5.2 Specialization Due to Compartmentalization  5.3 Specialization Due to the Needs of Empirical Research  5.4 Theory, Theoretical Groundwork and General Theory  5.5 The Contribution from Theoretical Groundwork  5.6 The Contribution from General Theory  5.7 Theoretical Groundwork and Hypotheses on Elites  5.8 General Theory and Theses on Elites and Masses 6 Case Studies and Hypotheses on Hegemony and Collective Action  6.1 Historical Case Studies to Understand Contemporary Cases  6.2 The Use of Case Studies to Understand Hegemony  6.3 Gramsci's Theory of Hegemony and Collective Action  6.4 Gramsci's Theory and Criticism of Elite Theorists  6.5 The British Elite and Its Use of Culture for Consent  6.6 The Piedmontese Elite and Its Collective Action Advantage  6.7 Meso Collective Action Problems, Cooptation, and Defection  6.8 General Theory and Theses on the Origins of Democracy   Conclusions Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisSummertime on Rhode Island’s luxurious Aquidneck Island.A middle-class Cuban American—freshly graduated from college—reckons with his fragile standing among the wealthy community in which he was raised, from which he might be cast out before the summer ends.Raymond Wilson-Domingo has never felt entirely comfortable among the elitist crowd of Newport’s old-money aristocracy—partly because he's Cuban, partly because of his modest upbringing in the city’s undesirable Fifth Ward neighborhood. But this summer, Ray's job at a boutique wine shop, a lobster theft, a misguided plan to become a lawyer, an exclusive beach club, an ill-timed car crash, the Moon View mansion’s mysterious and controversial new resident, and a doomed romance with the doyenne of Newport—not to mention the impending Campbell-Doheny wedding and all of the money, gossip, and drama which surrounds it—will collide, casting the differences between Ray and his peers in high relief. Ray would do anything to cement his place among New England’s most elite social circles, but will it ever be enough?Trade Review“Perfectly captures the confounding moment between college graduation and adult responsibilities. All in all, the drunken escapades are great fun.” —Publishers Weekly“With a great ear for dialogue and a keen eye for place, Fletcher Michael’s Glass Bottle Season offers both a sharp dissection of privilege and an ode to the summers of youth. This is a smart, entertaining, and poignant story about the messiness of life on the cusp of adulthood.” —Alix Ohlin, award-winning author of Dual Citizens“Glass Bottle Season, a buoyant coming-of-age story that follows Raymond as he desperately attempts to solidify his place among the hobnobbing elites of Newport, Rhode Island, is more than just a delightful beach read. Fletcher Michael’s second novel will stick with you long after the last grains of sand have been vacuumed from the trunk of your car.” —James P. MacGuire, author of Out of Time: Surviving the Sixties and Real Lace Revisited“Fletcher Michael’s Glass Bottle Season is a closely observed coming-of-age tale set against the backdrop of the insular culture of Newport royalty. This boozy, immersive novel will resonate with anyone who has ever felt like an outsider or has experienced that painful passage between the last gasps of childhood and beginnings of adulthood. It’s a terrific beach read, and just like summer, you won’t want it to end.” —Michelle Brafman, author of Washing the Dead and Bertrand Court“This boozy coming-of-age novel is a great read for anyone who’s felt out-of-place in their own home, or clung too hard to that one last carefree summer.” —Tyler McMahon, author of One Potato

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Book SynopsisAneurin Bevan is a revered figure in Welsh and British politics, celebrated for his role as the founder of one of the country’s most cherished institutions, the National Health Service. As a result, he is continuously invoked, quoted widely, and is praised for his principles. However, Bevan was not only a significant politician. He was also a prolific writer, contributing extensively to the socialist magazine Tribune from its founding in 1937 until his death in 1960. This is My Truth represents the first edited collection of these writings. Beginning with an introduction that charts his writing career and emphasises his legacy, the collection showcases Bevan’s analysis of class conflict, capitalism, democracy, the world and democratic socialism. This is My Truth provides readers with the opportunity to read Bevan in his own words and to reflect on a figure who remains a source of inspiration and controversy today.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1: Capitalism, Power and Politics Chapter 2: Labour and the Unions Chapter 3: Ideas, Values and Society Chapter 4: War Chapter 5: International Relations Bibliography

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Book SynopsisOver recent years, tabloid readers have become familiar with the concept of the "white working class", those thought to have been "left behind" by globalization, including immigration. Such sentiments were weaponized by politicians on all sides to fuel the anti-immigrant rhetoric of the Brexit campaign. And this racialized narrative has emerged repeatedly in mature democracies – in the political campaigns of Trump, Le Pen and others – and continues to gain traction in the guise of economic nationalism and populism. The need to understand the putative emergence of the white working class has become both intellectually significant and politically urgent. In Race and the Undeserving Poor, Robbie Shilliam does just this. He charts the development over the past 200 years of a shifting postcolonial settlement that has produced a racialized distinction between the "deserving" and "undeserving" poor, the latest incarnation of which is a distinction between a deserving, neglected white working class and "others" who are undeserving, not indigenous, and not white. Shilliam's analysis shows that the white working class are not an indigenous constituency, but a product of the struggles to consolidate and defend imperial order that have shaped British society since the abolition of slavery.Trade ReviewPolitically uncertain times require rigorous and judicious scholarship and, with this superbly argued book, Robbie Shilliam provides just that. The UK’s vote to leave the European Union has prompted a reconsideration of ideas of (national) belonging and of class. Shilliam eviscerates standard accounts that seek to locate the emergence of the ‘white working class’ in national terms and presents a brilliantly compelling account of why this emergence is better understood in terms of the postcolonial genealogy of British Empire. A vital, necessary book to make sense of our present. -- Gurminder K. Bhambra, Professor of Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies, University of SussexA milestone in political science and cultural studies ... Shilliam’s account of the racialisation of the ‘undeserving poor’ offers a systemic critique of how whiteness excuses politics from the difficult task of anti-capitalist internationalism ... accessibly introduces concepts that shed light on how whiteness is made by blackening. Each of these concepts packs an intricate but straightforward story about the internationalisation of British capital. -- Elio Di Muccio, Capital & Class... a detailed and sharp analysis of the racialization of those deemed 'undeserving' in British society. It places the emergence of the 'white working class', which was such a dominant category in debates around Brexit, within the broader historical context of the British Empire ... this 'white working class' imaginary persists in spite of the fact that the British working class are not homogenously white, and notably, that those who su?er most under austerity are Black and minority ethnic communities ... provides an important analytical framework for us to begin to understand contemporary debates around nationalism and belonging. -- Katy Harsant, Ethnic and Racial StudiesTable of ContentsForeword by Matthew Watson1. Introduction2. English poor laws and Caribbean slavery3 Anglo-Saxon empire and the residuum4. National welfare and colonial development5. Commonwealth labour and the white working class6. Social conservatism and the white underclass7. Brexit and the return of the white working class8. Conclusion: Brexit, viewed from Grenfell Tower

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Tidings of a shrinking middle class in one part of the world and its expansion in another absorb our attention, but seldom do we question the category itself. We Have Never Been Middle Class proposes that the middle class is an ideology. Tracing this ideology up to the age of financialisation, it exposes the fallacy in the belief that we can all ascend or descend as a result of our aspirational and precautionary investments in property and education. Ethnographic accounts from Germany, Israel, the United States and elsewhere illustrate how this belief orients us, in our private lives as much as in our politics, toward accumulation-enhancing yet self-undermining goals. This meshing of anthropology and critical theory elucidates capitalism by way of its archetypal actors.

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Book SynopsisSince the Great Recession hit in 2008, the 1% has only grown richer while the rest find life increasingly tough. The gap between the haves and the have-nots has turned into a chasm. While the rich have found new ways of protecting their wealth, everyone else has suffered the penalties of austerity. But inequality is more than just economics. Being born outside the 1% has a dramatic impact on a person's potential: reducing life expectancy, limiting educational and work prospects, and even affecting mental health. What is to be done? In Inequality and the 1% leading social thinker Danny Dorling lays bare the extent and true cost of the division in our society and asks what have the super-rich ever done for us? He shows that it is the 1% that threatens us with the most harm and why we must urgently redress the balanceTrade ReviewAn incredibly thoughtful book. With wit, expertise and a necessary anger, Danny Dorling makes the case for a 'slow revolution' against the concentrated wealth of the top 1%, who threaten our national and global well-being. Read him. Enjoy him. Join him. -- Melissa Benn, author of Life LessonsDorling asks questions about inequality that fast become unswervable: can we afford the superrich? Can society prosper? Can we realize our potential? -- Zoe Williams, GuardianA clear and readable account of the damage wrought by extreme inequality. This is a powerful book. -- Kate E. Pickett, co-author of The Spirit LevelA convincing picture of the epic insulation of the 1% -- Mary O’Hara, author of Austerity BitesIn a remarkable feat of archival excavation, Bill Mullen and Christopher Vials have prepared a carefully compiled dossier to address fascism in the US in new and original ways. The result is a varied and vital collection - historically engaging and pressingly relevant - that tracks the arc of fascism and radical responses. The US Antifascism Reader brings the true stakes of this topic into focus. It's a book I urge scholars and activists to obtain at once! -- Alan Wald, University of Michigan

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Book SynopsisDuring the eighteenth century, ladies of high society kept handwritten notes on recipes and it became fashionable to exchange the most successful with friends and neighbours. This charming book is a compilation of fifty of the best recipes taken from the archives of the country houses of Britain and Ireland. Each recipe is shown in its original form accompanied by an up-to-date version created by professional chefs so that the recipes can be recreated today. In a world dominated by additives and synthetic foodstuffs, these traditional recipes contain only natural ingredients and show that simple ways are often the best when it comes to creating dishes that stand the test of time.

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Book SynopsisQuestions of class, power and distribution have reemerged as central concerns in the public discourse. When we talk about class, we don't always know what is meant. Is class about income or affect or the ownership of the means of production? Perhaps it is about authority or autonomy? But what happens when, as is often the case in complex advanced economies, people can occupy social and economic roles that seem to indicate membership in more than one class? And what does this mean for the supposed relationship between class and potential political capacity and affinity?In Classes, Erik Olin Wright, the greatest American Marxist sociologists, rises to the twofold challenge of both clarifying the abstract, structural account of class implicit in Marx, and of applying and refining the account in the light of contemporary developments in advanced capitalist societies. What Wright calls "contradictory class locations" can make the class landscape appear much more complex than the simple model presented in Marx. Despite this complexity, common interests and therefore political alliances can still be found. In a society, like the US, characterized by extreme inequality, Classes provides not just a useful descriptive account of the operation of class but also the tools to understand the interplay of class interests and political (re)alignment.Trade Review“The most impressive book on class I have read in some years.”—Michael Mann, Contemporary Sociology“An empirically supported reformulation of class theory that achieves exemplary standards of critique, complexity and clarity.”—Claus Offe“Erik Olin Wright’s Classes is almost certain to be the most important book on social classes this decade ... The book presents a major breakthrough in the conceptualization of class relations ... and it will be required reading for all macro-sociologists.”—American Journal of Sociology

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Book SynopsisOne is not born a worker or a boss, one becomes one from father to son... or almost. Social reproduction is not an iron law; it admits of exceptions that must be accounted for in order to measure its scope. This book aims to understand the passage from one social class to another and to forge a method of approaching these particular cases which remain a blind spot in the theory of social reproduction. It analyzes the political, economic, social, familial and singular causes that contribute to non-reproduction, and their effects on the constitution of individuals transiting from one class to another.At the crossroads of collective history and intimate history, Chantal Jaquet identifies class locations, the interplay of affects and encounters, and the role of sexual and racial differences. She invites us to break out of disciplinary isolation in order to grasp singularity at the crossroads of philosophy, sociology, psychology and literature. This requires deconstruction of the concepts of social and personal identity, in favour of a concepts like complexion and the criss-crossing determinations. Through the figure of the transclass, it is thus the whole human condition that is illuminated in a new light.Trade ReviewTransclasses sets out to fill a lacuna created by the impoverished vocabulary of class by theorizing the class identities of "exceptional" subjects who defy the predictions of social determinism and leave their formative social status behind. Terms of stigma - parvenu, careerist, déclassé, class defector - are used to socially shame such subjects, but as Jaquet demonstrates, to hew to these caricatural typologies is to miss out on the power of class transitioning at the microscales of lived experience and in an intersectional frame. If we have been used to thinking, with Althusser, in terms of the reproduction of capitalism, Jaquet goes one further, producing a model of non-reproductive modes of existence that, far from superseding class or ignoring the reproductive drive of capital, expand their conceptual parameters. An experiment in concept-work that draws on self-narration in literature and auto-ethnography (from Stendhal to Richard Wright, Pierre Bourdieu, Annie Ernaux and Didier Eribon), Transclasses will be essential reading for interdisciplinary fieldworkers committed to new lexicons of identity, class struggle and social change. -- Emily Apter, New York University, author of Unexceptional Politics: On Obstruction, Impasse and the Impolitic (Verso, 2018)For more than a half-century sociologists, political theorists and scholars in the humanities have addressed the question of how a social order reproduces itself, above all, the relations of exploitation and domination that characterize it. Chantal Jaquet, whose studies of Spinoza have helped transform our understanding of that difficult philosopher, asks us instead to examine the phenomenon of non-reproduction, that is, the production of those who fail to fulfil or who resist the roles and functions to them. Her path-breaking work should be read by all those interested in understanding social transformation. -- Warren Montag

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Book SynopsisEn septiembre de 1933 desembarca en el puerto de Buenos Aires un cargamento con diecinueve indios oriundos de la Amazonia peruana. Es una entrega de la Peruvian Rubber Company para Amado Dam, miembro del selecto comité encargado de la creación del primer Parque Etnográfico del país, un sitio destinado a exhibir ejemplares de las distintas razas humanas para deleite del público visitante. Pero las cosas no salen según lo planificado y, por falta de documentación, los indios terminan ilegalmente recluidos en la casa de Dam, quien descubrirá que esconden un secreto tan fascinante como temerario: un artefacto de madera que contiene un perezoso en estado de hibernación. Cómo este descubrimiento se convierte con el tiempo en un secreto de Estado bajo la dirección de la Comisión de Telepatía Nacional?Roque Larraquy, una de las voces más originales de la narrativa argentina contemporánea, construye una novela hilarante y despiadadamente crítica en su dimensión política, en la que trabaja con el imaginario y los anhelos más secretos de una clase social que solo quiere perpetuarse en el poder. In September 1933, the Peruvian Rubber Company delivers nineteen indigenous people from the Amazon to a Buenos Aires businessman. Unexpected among the human cargo is a box, harboring a sloth with a fascinating yet terrifying secret: the ability to create erotically explosive telepathic connections between people. What ensues is a raucous satire of men's fear of women's bodies, of the illusion of logic in the structures of so-called civilization, and the way class and race obscure identities when the observer is a man with power.In The National Telepathy , Roque Larraquy, one of the most original voices in contemporary Argentine literature, brings us a literary highwire act, an over-the-top comic grotesque about atrocity. This shocking, bizarre, funny, imaginative novel lays all-too-bare the secret longings and not-so-secret machinations of a social class that will stop at nothing in order to stay on top.

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Book SynopsisAn eye-opening reckoning with the care economy, from its roots in racial capitalism to its exponential growth as a new site of profit and extraction.Since the earliest days of the pandemic, care work has been thrust into the national spotlight. The notion of care seems simple enough. Care is about nurturing, feeding, nursing, assisting, and loving human beings. It is “the work that makes all other work possible.” But as historian Premilla Nadasen argues, we have only begun to understand the massive role it plays in our lives and our economy. Nadasen traces the rise of the care economy, from its roots in slavery, where there was no clear division between production and social reproduction, to the present care crisis, experienced acutely by more and more Americans. Today’s care economy, Nadasen shows, is an institutionalized, hierarchical system in which some people’s pain translates into other people’s profit.Yet this is also a story of resistance. Low-wage workers, immigrants, and women of color in movements from Wages for Housework and Welfare Rights to the Movement for Black Lives have continued to fight for and practice collective care. These groups help us envision how, given the challenges before us, we can create a caring world as part of a radical future.Trade Review“With this book, Premilla Nadasen has made an invaluable contribution to the ongoing debates around care and capitalism. In clear and concise prose, she takes apart the care-industrial complex that has emerged, like the military- and prison-industrial complexes before it, to wring the last drops of profit from the lives and deaths of working people. An absolutely necessary intervention in the most important political debate of our times.”—Sarah Jaffe, author of Work Won’t Love You Back“Premilla Nadasen is a pathbreaking scholar of Black women’s labor and welfare organizing, as well as a radical feminist activist in her own right. She has a passion and a powerful talent for telling the complicated truths that define working class women of color’s lives. In Care: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, Nadasen offers a brilliant interrogation of the exploitative and profit-driven care system in the United States. To fully understand racial capitalism in the 21st century, you have to read this book."—Barbara Ransby, professor and director of the Social Justice Initiative, University of Illinois at Chicago, and author of the award-winning Ella Baker and The Black Freedom Movement“If you think the ‘care economy’ sounds like a socialist nirvana, think again. Premilla Nadasen reveals how the exploitation and commodification of reproductive labor has enriched corporations, compensated for a shrinking welfare state, and pauperized the very workers responsible for the sustenance, health, and well-being of others. The consequences of a gendered racial capitalist ‘care economy’ are deepening inequality, more broken people, and a culture of sacrifice that only serves to mask misery and low wages. Once you read this highly original, incisive, and unsettling book, you will no longer honor nurses by banging pots together but by joining a picket line instead.”—Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination“Premilla Nadasen’s Care is a clear, useful tool for thinking about both the brutal exploitation of capitalist care relations and the transformative power of grassroots collective care projects. Nadasen deftly weaves insights from labor resistance, Black feminism, anti-colonial struggles, disability justice, and other radical traditions into a cohesive analysis of reproductive labor that will be a readable primer for classroom and community use as much as it is a visionary inquiry into what new social relations we need to be building right now. This book is a generous contribution to the most urgent conversations happening in social movements and embattled communities right now.”—Dean Spade, author of Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)“Nadasen takes a deep and discouraging dive into current practices of care as they have been shaped by historical precedents and capitalist greed. Her research illuminates generations of resistance by recipients, and uncovers creative approaches to collective care that promise effective solutions to poverty, housing, and the well-being of the ill, the unhoused, children, and the elderly. I hope everyone who wants to understand what is perhaps our greatest contemporary concern will read this book.”—Alice Kessler-Harris, author of In Pursuit of Equity: Women, Men, and the Quest for Economic Citizenship in Twentieth Century America"Incisive.... Crisply argued, rigorously contextualized, and approachably written, this is essential reading for those interested in social justice and working-class politics."—Publishers WeeklyTable of ContentsIntroductionChapter 1: “One of the Family”: Gender, Labor, and the Care Work DiscourseChapter 2: The Labors of Life: Care Work, Social Reproduction, and CapitalismChapter 3: Social Reproduction, Coercion, and CareChapter 4: “Tell ‘Dem Slavery Done’”: Social Reproduction and the Politics of ResistanceChapter 5. Who Cares? Caring (or Not Caring) for the PoorChapter 6: In Bed with Capitalism: The State, Capital, and Profiting Off Those in NeedChapter 7. Radical CareConclusion

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Winner of the Mary Douglas Prize, Culture Section of the American Sociological Association""Dreams of a Lifetime belongs to a particular shelf, one that holds those books that utilize sociology seriously to best capture the pulse of the United States at a particular juncture in time. In this tradition, one can find treatises about loneliness (Riesman, Slater), disconnection (Putnam, Sennett), how people think and feel (Bellah et al.), the life of those on the lower ladders of this society (Sennett and Cobb, Liebow, and more recently Desmond as well as Horschild). A lot has changed since some of these books were published. . . but the impetus remains the same: to explain to ourselves who we are at a particular juncture in time, in a jargon free, yet sociologically informed way."---Claudio E. Benzecry, Sociological Forum

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Book SynopsisAs one of the most prestigious high schools in the nation, St Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, has long been the exclusive domain of America's wealthiest sons. This title provides an inside look at an institution that has been the private realm of the elite.Trade Review"A highly readable, intellectually humble hybrid of modern anthropology and magazine-style investigation."---Talmon Joseph Smith, New York Times Book Review"Ethnographic research into the very heart of privilege. . . . [Khan] steps down from his pedestal and lets himself get closer to these future masters of the universe."---Robin D. Schatz, Bloomberg News"This book is beautifully written and filled with important insights into processes of socialization among the elite. I recommend this book for all scholars interested in the reproduction of inequality in U.S. society."---Wendy Leo Moore, American Journal of Sociology"The elites in Britain and in America have changed. They now appear more open. More worldly. More meritocratic. For a description of how that process works, look at [Privilege]."---Aditya Chakrabortty, The Guardian"Khan's many perspectives—as a minority student in a rich WASP school, as a teacher interacting with his students, and as a researcher observing his subjects—gave him unique access to understanding the American elite. . . . Khan's objectivity turns to pessimism as he describes the result of greater diversity, which he finds 'does not mean mobility and it certainly does not mean equality.'"---Barbara Fisher, Boston Globe"Privilege sets out to understand 'the new elite' and its place in the larger story of American education."---Josh Rothman, Boston Globe, Brainiac"Shamus Rahman Khan has his part in loosening the knot of privilege, by analyzing America's dreams and telling us why some of them remain thwarted. . . . Privilege is an exceptional cultural study of inequality that concentrates on elites. It is a brave piece of work, guaranteed to raise the hackles of more than a few private school trustees, administrators, faculty and parents."---Michael D. Langan, Buffalo News"[Privilege] fills in the crucial missing piece. It's a well grounded description of the people who are the 'input' into the elite higher education system. It's a view of elite life from the 'training camp,' right before they are unleashed into American society. Highly recommended to anyone interested in stratification and education."---Fabio Rojas, OrgTheory.net"If you want a peek inside an elite New England prep school, here it is. . . . But while nosiness about St. Paul's is a perfectly good reason to read the book, Khan's purpose is higher. This is a book about the promise of America and how well the nation is fulfilling it. It is a book that suggests how money still trumps ideals and how a myth fostered at St. Paul's and other such schools serves a new elite class. Most usefully, the book explores why racial and ethnic diversity--a challenge that St. Paul's is meeting admirably--is not synonymous with mobility and equality. . . . Full of valuable insights."---Mike Pride, Concord Monitor"While the empirical meat of Privilege is from the United States, Canadian scholars of inequality and education will find this book useful. The ethnographic material is worth reading for its empirical contribution alone; but more importantly it also illustrates how the relative steepness of the U.S. postsecondary system contributes to enduring social inequalities."---Janice Aurini, Canadian Journal of Sociology"Returning to his alma mater as faculty member and ethnographer, Khan offers an incisive study of the formation of a new, meritocratic elite. . . . Of utility and wide appeal to a range of academics, Khan's study is consistently engaging and of potentially enduring value." * Choice *"Essential reading for understanding today's elite. Not since Christopher Lasch's Revolt of the Elites has the meritocracy been so effectively skewered."---Austin Bramwell, American Conservative"There are few ethnographic accounts of life in exclusive American boarding schools and Khan's book is far and away the most sophisticated among them. But the contribution of Privilege goes beyond this narrow field. Those interested in the sociology of culture, stratification, everyday life, education, race, and gender will find much to appreciate. . . . Khan is a versatile and earnest ethnographer with a sharp eye for gesture and a keen ear for dialogue."---Victoria Bonnell, Contemporary Sociology"Privilege is a welcome addition to the sociological literature on elite prep schools. . . . This readable book provides a vivid, often elucidating, and not always pretty look at life at St. Paul's as of the 2004-05 school year."---Richard L. Zweigenhaft, Social Forces"[An] excellent, engaging, well written, and carefully researched study of the ways culture works in and through schools."---Lisa M. Stulberg, Contexts"Privilege is a welcome addition to the sociological literature on elite prep schools. . . . [Khan] is the narrator of this ethnography, and he is often a participant in the events he observes and analyzes. We get to know him, and he is an enjoyable and informative companion, one who is honest about the challenges he has faced."---Richard L. Zweigenhaft, Oxford Journals

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Book SynopsisHighlights the entanglement of British class and sexuality, in a society saturated by the rhetoric of diversityTrade Review'A much needed and timely deep forensic dive into the underrepresentation of working class queers within our queer structures and concepts' -- Juno Roche, writer'This work holds rich and deep insights into lived experience, the power lines of learning within institutions, how people act on and transform each other in community. Yvette’s book opens doors and transforms fault lines. It will be beneficial to thinkers, feelers and doers for years to come.' -- Sarah Schulman, author of 'Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York' (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021)'Building on more than two decades of care-ful, engaged research with classed LGBT+ communities, Working-Class Queers makes major intellectual and ethical contributions to queer feminist methods. This book is a must-read for thinkers asking about the how of queer and lesbian studies, not least in that it reflects intimate methods of sharing negotiated by a scholar working in troubled and hopeful times alike.' -- Matt Brim, Professor of queer studies at the College of Staten Island, City University of New YorkTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Fighting for the Queer Left 2. Un-Doing Queer-Class Data 3. Queer Life in the Pandemic 4. Queer Provincialisms in (Post)Brexit Britain 5. Queers and Austerity 6. Queer Anachronisms: Working-Class Lesbians out of Time and Place 7. Towards a Queer Working-Class Reading List

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Book SynopsisIn Poor Queer Studies Matt Brim shifts queer studies away from its familiar sites of elite education toward poor and working-class people, places, and pedagogies. Brim shows how queer studies also takes place beyond the halls of flagship institutions: in night school; after a three-hour commute; in overflowing classrooms at no-name colleges; with no research budget; without access to decent food; with kids in tow; in a state of homelessness. Drawing on the everyday experiences of teaching and learning queer studies at the College of Staten Island, Brim outlines the ways the field has been driven by the material and intellectual resources of those institutions that neglect and rarely serve poor and minority students. By exploring poor and working-class queer ideas and laying bare the structural and disciplinary mechanisms of inequality that suppress them, Brim jumpstarts a queer-class knowledge project committed to anti-elitist and anti-racist education. Poor Queer StudiesTrade Review“Through his ethnographic accounts of the lives of his students, Matt Brim charts out in startling detail how queer studies produces class inequity. Having all the makings of a classic in queer studies and pedagogy studies, his book should be required reading in every intro to queer studies course at the undergraduate and graduate level. The field has needed Poor Queer Studies for a long time.” -- E. Patrick Johnson, author of * Honeypot: Black Southern Women Who Love Women *“Matt Brim's stunning Poor Queer Studies forces us to look at higher education through the lens of inequality to consider the ramifications of what he calls the ‘overrepresentation of affluence’ within academe. He assesses the ways faculty in programs dedicated to race, gender, and sexuality are marginalized, overworked, and undercompensated, then flips the equation to examine inequalities within and across these fields. Whether amassing demographic data or offering beautiful and challenging readings of key texts, Brim is relentlessly on target. His sweep and depth are breathtaking.” -- Cathy N. Davidson, author of * The New Education: How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux *"A damning critique of the impact of academic elitism on poor and working-class students. . . . Poor Queer Studies lays bare the structural and disciplinary mechanism of inequality, from overcrowded classrooms and inadequate educational resources to more basic deficiencies of the underprivileged such as homelessness, lack of access to food, healthcare, and childcare, and more." -- Donald Padgett * The Advocate *"Provocative and timely. . . . Poor Queer Studies will be valuable reading if you work at any institution of higher education—poor or rich; public or private; urban or rural; elitist or not—because it offers indispensable tools for navigating the crises of the academy. Brim challenges readers to imagine what a queer-class analysis might yield not just for their own scholarship and teaching, but for the lives of their students and the worlds they inhabit." -- Nino Testa * Women's Review of Books *"This is a huge theoretical, methodological and political contribution to Queer Studies and in particular, Queer Pedagogies. Finishing this book leaves an uncomfortable doubt about how much and for whom are we allegedly queering academy and universities." -- Luan C. B. Cassal * Ethnic and Racial Studies *"Any professional concerned with equity in higher education would do well to read this analysis of the stultifying inattention to the lives of poor and working-class LGBTQ individuals within the field of queer studies. . . . This is not a guide for instruction (i.e., there is no recommended curriculum or a listing of suggested texts), but rather a powerful examination of the field of queer studies and, more broadly, of its place within the context of efforts to make higher education more inclusive and welcoming to all seeking its benefits. Highly recommended. Faculty and professionals." -- H. M. Miller * Choice *"Ostensibly a book about the discipline of queer studies, it actually provides a searing, astute indictment of what's wrong with the academy writ large. If you read only one book about the state of the academy, it ought to be Poor Queer Studies." -- Rhea Rollmann * Popmatters *“Brim provides thorough, detailed, researched explanations of the arguments regarding just what Poor Queer Studies is and what it aims to do…. Poor Queer Studies is a much-needed resource to challenge us all to think about how we engage in Queer Studies, Queer Theory, and Queer Pedagogy across class and race. It is especially timely given where we find ourselves as a country with respect to issues and discussions of race and class as well as discussions regarding the importance of higher education.” -- R. Bradley Johnson, et al * Teachers College Record *“This is a compassionate book, a book written by someone who possesses enough humility to learn from his poor and working-class students, particularly those of color, and to put that learning at the center of a book that is ironically—as he points out himself—published by a high-end university press.” -- Renny Christopher * Journal of Working-Class Studies *"Poor Queer Studies offers nothing short of a proposal for a radically inclusive queer pedagogy." -- Velina Manolova * Public Books *“Where Poor Queer Studies offers field-upending provocations, its author comes across as modest and pragmatic, evincing an admirable solidarity in his insistence on the significance of his students’ experiences and his colleagues’ contributions.... It should be assigned in every proseminar on college teaching.” -- Kim Emery * GLQ *"[Brim's] reflections on the frustrations and joys of teaching queer studies classes to poor and working-class students at the chronically underfunded CSI are heartfelt and enraging. . . . The book is at its best when chronicling the many obstacles facing CSI’s students, many of whom live at home with parents and siblings, have children of their own, and more-likely-than-not hold down full-time jobs while enrolled." -- Eleanor J. Bader * The Indypendent *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Queer Dinners 1 1. The College of Staten Island: A Poor Queer Studies Case Study 29 2. "You Can Write Your Way Out of Anywhere": The Upward Mobility Myth of Rich Queer Studies 64 3. The Queer Career: Vocational Queer Studies 99 4. Poor Queer Studies Mothers 135 5. Counternarratives: A Black Queer Reader 159 Epilogue. Queer Ferrying 194 Notes 203 Bibliography 225 Index 241

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Book SynopsisNearly 90 percent of residents in Dubai are foreigners with no Emirati nationality. As in many global cities, those who hold Western passports share specific advantages: prestigious careers, high salaries, and comfortable homes and lifestyles. With this book, Amélie Le Renard explores how race, gender and class backgrounds shape experiences of privilege, and investigates the processes that lead to the formation of Westerners as a social group. Westernness is more than a passport; it is also an identity that requires emotional and bodily labor. And as they work, hook up, parent, and hire domestic help, Westerners chase Dubai's promise of socioeconomic elevation for the few. Through an ethnography informed by postcolonial and feminist theory, Le Renard reveals the diverse experiences and trajectories of white and non-white, male and female Westerners to understand the shifting and contingent nature of Westernness—and also its deep connection to whiteness and heteronormativity. Western Privilege offers a singular look at the lived reality of structural racism in cities of the global South.Trade Review"Western Privilege is a must-read for those interested in race and racialization anywhere. 'Western' and 'white' remain unmarked, static categories in most postcolonial scholarship. In this excellent ethnography, Amélie Le Renard shows ushow these structuring categories are both integral to Gulf social hierarchies and have an enduring global influence."—Neha Vora, Lafayette College"Western Privilege provides a fascinating analysis of Dubai as a hub city of postcolonial globalization. Amélie Le Renard skillfully weaves together consideration of a complex range of issues, such as intersectionality and heteronormativity, to bring new insights to scholars of Arab studies and all who work on globalization and migration."—Pauline Leonard, University of Southampton"Amélie Le Renard's portrait of professional workers in Dubai not only provides an intimate rendering of the workings of privilege, but shows why understanding it must foreground race (particularly whiteness), gender, and sexuality. Western Privilege is a rare intersectional analysis of privilege that is both empirically and theoretically rich."—Shamus R. Khan, Princeton University"Western Privilegecontributes to a discussion about Western hegemony by showing how Westernness and whiteness organise social life in a non-Western context. Moreover, the use of a postcolonial feminist approach allows the author to provide insights into how Westernness is conditioned and shaped by gender, race and class. Besides its scholarly contributions, the book will hopefully prompt those who self-identify as Westerners in the Middle Eastern context to critically examine their own contributions to the social order in question."—Dr Liina Mustonen, London School of Economics Review of Books"Recommended."—S. Waalkes, CHOICE"I applaud Le Renard for a rich and thorough investigation of class, gender, nationality, and race."—Jörg Matthias Determann, Review of Middle East Studies"Western Privilege provides a compelling analysis that speaks to multiple disciplines and regions in the world. It is highly recommended."—Yuting Wang, American Journal of SociologyTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. The Construction of Skills 2. Structural Advantages in the Job Market 3. Performing Stereotypical Westernness 4. The Heteronormativity of "Guest Families" 5. Relations with Domestic Employees 6. Hedonistic Lifestyles 7. Western Privilege and White Privilege Conclusion

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"One of the Economist.com “Wise Words 2017 Books of the Year” in Culture"

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Book SynopsisConsidering Class: Theory, Culture and Media in the 21st Century offers the reader international and interdisciplinary perspectives on the importance of class analysis in the 21st century. Political economists, sociologists, educationalists, ethnographers, cultural and media analysts have contributed to this volume to provide a multi-dimensional account of current class dynamics.Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsNotes on Contributors i1 Introduction Deirdre O’Neill and Mike Wayne Part 1: Class Theory 2 Class and the Classical Marxist Tradition Joseph Choonara3 Social Class and Education Dave Hill4 Marxist Class Theory: Competition, Contingency and Intermediate Class Positions Jonathan Pratschke5 Class Segregation  Danny Dorling6 The ‘Secret’ of the Restoration: Increased Class Exploitation Maurizio Donato and Roberto Taddeo Part 2: Class and Culture 7 Exploitation, Oppression, and Epistemology Holly Lewis8 Peasants, Migrants and Self-Employed Workers: The Masks that Veil Class Affiliation in Latin America: The Argentine Case Marina Kabat and Eduardo Sartelli9 Capitalism, Class and Collective Identity: Social Movements and Public Services in South Africa Adrian Murray10 On Intellectuals Deirdre O’Neill and Mike Wayne11 The British Working Class Post-blair Consensus: We Do Not Exist Lisa Mckenzie12 From Class Solidarity to Cultural Solidarity: Immigration, Crises, and the Populist Right Ferruh Yilmaz13 Recovering the Australian Working Class Tony Moore, Mark Gibson and Catharine Lumby Part 3: Class and the Media 14 ‘Everything Changes. Everything Stays the Same’: Documenting Continuity and Change in Working Class Lives Anita Biressi15 Ghettos and Gated Communities in the Social Landscape of Television: Representations of Class in 1982 and 2015 Fredrik Stiernstedt and Peter Jakobsson16 Class, Culture and Exploitation: The Case of Reality tv  Milly Williamson17 Class Warfare, the Neoliberal Man and the Political Economy of Methamphetamine in Breaking Bad  Michael Seltzer18 ‘The Thing Is I’m Actually from Bromley’: Queer/Class Intersectionality in Pride (2014) Craig HaslopIndex

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