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Book Synopsis#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Evicted reimagines the debate on poverty, making a “provocative and compelling” (NPR) argument about why it persists in America: because the rest of us benefit from it.“Urgent and accessible . . . Its moral force is a gut punch.”—The New Yorker ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2023: The Washington Post, Time, Esquire, Newsweek, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Elle, Salon, Lit Hub, Kirkus ReviewsThe United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages?  In this landmark book, acclaimed sociologist Matthew Desmond draws

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Book SynopsisProbing the ominous side of career advice to follow your passion, this data-driven study explains how the passion principle fails us and perpetuates inequality by class, gender, and race; and it suggests how we can reconfigure our relationships to paid work. Follow your passion is a popular mantra for career decision-making in the United States. Passion-seeking seems like a promising path for avoiding the potential drudgery of a life of paid work, but this passion principleseductive as it isdoes not universally translate. The Trouble with Passion reveals the significant downside of the passion principle: the concept helps culturally legitimize and reproduce an exploited, overworked white-collar labor force and broadly serves to reinforce class, race, and gender segregation and inequality. Grounding her investigation in the paradoxical tensions between capitalism's demand for ideal workers and our cultural expectations for self-expression, sociologist Erin A. Cech draws on interTrade Review"As the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted many people to contemplate the meaning of their work and life, this book offers particularly relevant insights for those wanting a career change to consider how they should make career decisions and the role work should play in their life. The Trouble with Passion should also be revelatory to people who potentially shape others’ career decisions, such as educators and career counselors; those who can influence the career outcomes of people in the labor market, such as hiring managers and organization leaders; and policymakers who have the power to rectify the structural factors producing the dark side of the passion principle in the first place. I would also recommend this book to social science scholars interested in careers, passion, the meaning of work, segregation, and inequality in general." * Administrative Science Quarterly *"If you’re looking for a book that can offer you new insights into career choices while making you think critically about librarianship, passion, and labor, this is a recommended read." * College & Research Libraries *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Preface Introduction 1. What Is the Passion Principle? 2. Why Is the Passion Principle Compelling? 3. The Privilege of Passion? Passion-Seeking and Socioeconomic Inequality among Career Aspirants 4. The Passion Principle as Prescriptive and Explanatory Narrative? How the Passion Principle Choicewashes Workforce Inequalities 5. Exploiting Passion? The Demand Side of the Passion Principle Conclusion Epilogue Acknowledgments Appendix A: Methods Appendix B: Supplemental Analysis of 2020 College Student Survey Appendix C: Supporting Data Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewRigney's summary of the latest research findings should contribute to a much needed discussion between policy makers, social scientists, and the general public. Publishers Weekly [A] cogent book. -- Steven Poole GuardianTable of Contents1. What Is the Matthew Effect? 2. Matthew Effects in Science and Technology 3. Matthew Effects in the Economy 4. Matthew Effects in Politics and Public Policy 5. Matthew Effects in Education and Culture 6. Implications and Conclusions Appendix: Trends in Economic Inequality Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisA powerful analysis of how the bias towards wealth that is woven into the very fabric of American capitalism is damaging people, the economy, and the planet, and what the foundations of a new economy could be.This bold manifesto exposes seven myths underlying wealth supremacy, the bias that institutionalizes infinite extraction of wealth by and for the wealthy, and is the hidden force behind economic injustice, the climate crisis, and so many other problems of our day: The Myth of Maximizing: No amount of wealth is ever enough. The Myth of Fiduciary Duty: Corporate managers? most sacred duty is to expand capital. The Myth of Corporate Governance: Corporate membership must be reserved for capital alone. The Myth of the Income Statement: Income to capital must always be increased, while income to labor must always be decreased. The Myth of Materiality: Profit?material gain?alone is real, while social and environmental damages are not. The Myth of Takings: The first duty of government must be the protection of private property. The Myth of the Free Market: There should be no limits on the field of action of corporations and capital. Kelly argues instead for the democratization of ownership: public ownership of vital services, worker-owned businesses, and more. And she sketches the outlines of a non-extractive capitalism that would be subordinate to the public interest. This is an ambitious reimagining of the very foundations of our economy and society.

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Book SynopsisOffers a description of the author's stint as a low-wage worker at two national toy store chains: one upscale shop and one big box outlet. Including observations from the shop floor, this book chronicles her experiences as a cashier, salesperson, and stocker and provides insights into the social impact of shopping for toys.Trade Review“A welcome addition to the growing body of literature on children’s culture.” * Journal of American Culture *“Want to know why black men get demoted as workers? Or why middle-class white women are the most annoying customers of all? Then this is your book. In brisk and straightforward style, Williams argues that most of our contemporary working cultures harm consumers and employees and that we need to improve them, fast. While some anecdotes will not seem unfamiliar to those who have seen the view from both sides of a till, Williams's ability to connect them to a range of social theories results in a thoughtful and impressive read.” * The Guardian *"Inside Toyland is a model study of relations between identities, products, and work. For students, Williams provides many examples that bring abstract concepts—like the fetishization of commodities—to life. She calls for us not to shop less, but to shop with more awareness of, and effort to improve, the lives of retail workers and the entire experience of consumption." * American Journal of Sociology *“Inside Toyland is a gem—a well-written examination of politics, inequality, racism and working conditions in the context of the toy store. . . . This book powerfully exposes the politics and inequality embedded within consumer culture through an examination of low-wage retail work. It is a highly engaging expose of the reproduction of class, race and gender inequality.” * Canadian Journal of Sociology *"Williams's experiences in two retail toy stores-one mega and the other upscale-make evident the gender and racial/ethnic nature of retail work. She clearly demonstrates how every day exchanges between employees and man agers as well as employees and customers help reinforce existing social expectations based on class, gender, and race/ethnicity." * Contemporary Sociology *"This book is a major contribution to consumer studies, labor studies, race and ethnic studies, and gender studies." * Gender and Society *“A compelling read for those critical of the commercialization of childhood.” * Tikkun *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments 1 A Sociologist inside Toy Stores 2 History of Toy Shopping in America 3 The Social Organization of Toy Stores 4 Inequality on the Shopping Floor 5 Kids in Toyland 6 Toys and Citizenship Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisThis volume demonstrates how the conditions and styles of middle-class life represent modern society as a whole. By examining white-collar life, the text aims to distinguish a more typically "American" persona than the once-famous Western frontier character.Trade Review"A book that persons of every level of the white collar pyramid should read and ponder. It will alert them to their condition for their better salvation."--Horace M. Kaellen, The New York Times (on the first edition)Table of ContentsPART ONE: OLD MIDDLE CLASS 1. The World of the Small Entrepreneur 1. The Old Middle Classes 2. Property, Freedom and Security 3. The Self-Balancing Society 2. The Transformation of Property 1. The Rural Debacle 2. Business Dynamics 3. The Lumpen-Bourgeoisie 3. The Rhetoric of Competition 1. The Competitive Way of Life 2. The Independent Farmer 3. The Small Business Front 4. Political Persistence PART TWO: WHITE COLLAR WORLDS 4. The New Middle Class: I 1. Occupational Change 2. Industrial Mechanics 3. White-Collar Pyramids 5. The Managerial Demiurge 1. The Bureaucracies 2. From the Top to the Bottom 3. The Case of the Foreman 4. The New Entrepreneur 5. The Power of the Managers 6. Three Trends 6. Old Professions and New Skills 1. The Professions and Bureaucracy 2. The Medical World 3. Lawyers 4. The Professors 5. Business and the Professions 7. Brains, Inc. 1. Four Phases 2. The Bureaucratic Context 3. The Ideological Demand 4. The Rise of the Technician 8. The Great Salesroom 1. Types of Salesmen 2. The Biggest Bazaar in the World 3. Buyers and Floorwalkers 4. The Salesgirls 5. The Centralization of Salesmanship 6. The Personality Market 9. The Enormous File 1. The Old Office 2. Forces and Developments 3. The White-Collar Girl 4. The New Office 5. The White-Collar Hierarchy PART THREE: STYLES OF LIFE 10. Work 1. Meanings of Work 2. The Ideal of Craftsmanship 3. The Conditions of Modern Work 4. Frames of Acceptance 5. The Morale of the Cheerful Robots 6. The Big Slipt 11. The Status Panic 1. White-Collar Prestige 2. The Smaller City 3. The Metropolis 4. The Status Panic 12. Success 1. Patterns and Ideologies 2. The Educational Elevator 3. Origins and Mobilities 4. Hard Times 5. The Tarnished Image PART FOUR: WAYS OF POWER 13. The New Middle Class: II 1. Theories and Difficulties 2. Mentalities 3. Organizations 14. White-Collar Unionism 1. The Extent Organized 2. Acceptance and Rejection 3. Individual Involvement 4. The Shape of Unionism 5. Unions and Politics 15. The Politics of the Rearguard 1. Models of Consciousness 2. Political Indifference 3. The Mass Media 4. The Social Structure 5. U.S. Politics 6. The Rearguards Afterword by Russell Jacoby

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Book SynopsisIn the wake of the attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris on 7 January 2015, millions took to the streets to demonstrate their revulsion, expressing a desire to reaffirm the ideals of the French Republic: liberté, égalité, fraternité. But who were the millions of demonstrators who were suddenly united under the single cry of ‘Je suis Charlie’?In this probing new book, Emmanuel Todd investigates the cartography and sociology of the three to four million who marched in Paris and across France and draws some unsettling conclusions. For while they claimed to support liberal, republican values, the real middle classes who marched on that day of indignant protest also had a quite different programme in mind, one that was far removed from their proclaimed ideal. Their deep values were in fact more reminiscent of the most depressing aspects of France’s national history: conservatism, selfishness, domination and inequality.By identifying the anthropological, religious, economic and political forces that brought France to the edge of the abyss, Todd reveals the real dangers posed to all western societies when the interests of privileged middle classes work against marginalised and immigrant groups. Should we really continue to mistreat young people, force the children of immigrants to live on the outskirts of our cities, consign the poorer classes to the remoter parts of the country, demonise Islam, and allow the growth of an ever more menacing anti-Semitism? While asking uncomfortable questions and offering no easy solutions, Todd points to the difficult and uncertain path that might lead to an accommodation with Islam rather than a deepening and divisive confrontation.Trade Review"Todd�s highly contrarian analysis of the Charlie movement and his strident tone have drawn widespread criticism. But the very boldness of his claims, backed up by hard data, commands attention. No student of the marches can ignore this deeply unconventional book." Times Literary Supplement"The value of Todd�s book lies in the persuasive counter-narrative that debunks the Manichean interpretation of events that has thus far prevailed in media and political circles."Times Higher Education"The book offers a deeply reflective analysis of the Charlie Hebdo affair in Paris, and uses it brilliantly to explore and criticise the inner tensions and selective historical amnesia of French society that are taken to be responsible for its current Islamophobia and anti-Semitism. It shows with great insight and wisdom how to deal with these disturbing trends."Bhikhu Parekh, House of Lords"Who Is Charlie? stands out from all that has been written on the two massacres that took place in Paris in January 2015. It is an impressive analysis and a gripping read - I couldn't put it down once I started reading it. Emmanuel Todd's concern is not merely to trace the cause of these crimes but to reflect on them as a way of understanding the structural contradictions of contemporary France - a nation that continually invokes its Jacobin legacy (liberty, equality, fraternity) and yet allows that legacy to be undermined. This book is a brilliantly argued polemic and essential reading for understanding Islamophobia as a symptom of neo-Republican France in crisis."Talal Asad, CUNY Graduate Center"Who is Charlie? is an important little book, timely and pertinent, and not just for what it says about France. In all Western societies it is the middle classes who enjoy what globalization has created and it is the middle classes who would keep the dispossessed excluded by means of wage inequality and control of education. At the same time, no longer buttressed by the metaphysics of religion, an anxiety haunts the vacuum of the hollow culture that has replaced Catholicism and Protestantism. Charlie seeks a scapegoat, needs one, and the kind of hysteria that gripped France after the events of 7th January is capable of manifesting itself in countries outside of France."Irish Left Review "Perceptive and chilling"London Review of BooksTable of ContentsPreface to the English editionIntroductionCHAPTER ONE: A religious crisisThe terminal crisis in CatholicismReligious decline and the rise of xenophobiaCatholic France and secular France: 1750-1960The two Frances and equalityFrom the One God to the single currencyFrançois Hollande, the Left, and zombie Catholicism2005: a missed opportunity in class struggle?Difficult atheismCHAPTER TWO: CharlieCharlie: middle class and zombie CatholicsNeo-republicanism1992-2015: from pro-Europeanism to neo-republicanismThe neo-republican reality: the ‘social state’ of the middle classesCharlie is anxiousSecularism versus the LeftCatholicism, Islamophobia and anti-SemitismCHAPTER THREE: When equality failsThe difficulties of secular, egalitarian FranceThe anthropology of a capitalism in crisisThe Europe of inequalityFrance, the Germans and the ArabsGermany and circumcisionThe great pro-European happening of 11 January 2015Russia: an exceptional caseThe mystery of ParisThe memory of placesThe four stages of the crisis CHAPTER IV: The French of the Far RightThe slow march of the National Front towards the centre ground in FranceA perversion of universalismRepublican anti-SemitismLe Pen, Sarkozy and equalityThe Socialist Party and inequality: the concept of objective xenophobiaMélenchon and inequalityThe insignificance of human beings and the violence of ideologies CHAPTER FIVE: The French MuslimsThe disintegration of North African culturesMixed marriages: Jews and MuslimsIdeologues and exogamyThe crushing of young people and the jihad factoryScottish fundamentalismMoving beyond the fear of religionIslam and equalityThe inequality of the sexesThe anti-Semitism of the suburbsConclusionThe real republican pastThe neo-republican presentFuture 1: ConfrontationFuture 2: the return to the Republic: an accommodation with IslamA foreseeable deteriorationThe secret weapon of the republican revival

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Book SynopsisAn urgent proclamation of what life is like for American women without the security of a financial safety netIndie icon Michelle Tea--whose memoir The Chelsea Whistle details her own working-class roots in gritty Chelsea, Massachusetts--shares these fierce, honest, tender essays written by women who can't go home to the suburbs when ends don't meet. When jobs are scarce and the money has dwindled, these writers have nowhere to go but below the poverty line. The writers offer their different stories not for sympathy or sadness, but an unvarnished portrait of how it was, is, and will be for generations of women growing up working class in America. These wide-ranging essays cover everything from selling blood for grocery money to the culture shock of "jumping" class. Contributors include Dorothy Allison, Bee Lavender, Eileen Myles, and Daisy Hernández.Trade ReviewSo raw, so fresh, so riveting... An important book for any woman who's grown up - or is growing up - in America. * Vendela Vida *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Winner of the Max Weber Book Award, Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section of the American Sociological Association""Longlisted for the 2018 Spirited Awards Best New Book on Drinks, Culture, History, or Spirits, Tales of the Cocktail"

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Book SynopsisElizabeth A. Segal explains how we can develop our ability to understand one another and have compassion toward different social groups. A useful explanation of an often misunderstood concept, Social Empathy brings together sociology, psychology, social work, and cognitive neuroscience to illustrate how to become better advocates for justice.Trade ReviewThis book brings together important ideas about how we relate to one another and make decisions about the society we live in. Using social empathy to frame community decision making such as social policies helps us understand our citizenship responsibilities. Especially in times of extreme political divisiveness, we need to be reminded of the consequences of a lack of social empathy—in our individual relationships, communities, and national discourse. Anyone who is asking difficult questions about divisiveness in their own community will find Segal’s ideas useful in reflecting on questions of why and what next. -- Sarah Garlington, Ohio UniversitySocial Empathy expands on what we know about interpersonal empathy and strikes right at the heart of today’s partisan conflicts. In readable, humane, and informative prose, this book explains how we can overcome tribal instincts and forge the supportive, meaningful connections we need in order to thrive in today’s global environment. -- Caroline Wellbery, Georgetown University School of MedicineElizabeth Segal’s groundbreaking work on social empathy explains how we can expand our capacity to appreciate the social contexts and lived experiences of diverse others. Given growing diversity and urbanization in countries worldwide, this book could not be more timely or urgent for strengthening public problem-solving and enhancing our collective wellbeing. -- William M. Snyder, coauthor of Cultivating Communities of PracticeIn this stellar book, Elizabeth Segal offers a cross disciplinary picture of social empathy. Like the periodic table, she distills empathy to its essential elements, helping readers understand the essence of empathic thinking and living. This book is a must read for all concerned about how to educate ourselves and the next generation to live an empathic life. -- Miriam Raider-Roth, University of CincinnatiSegal summarizes her ten-plus years of research into social work, psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and sociology to present a new study of empathy, raising the fundamental helping skill of imagining oneself in another's place, to a higher level. . . . [Social Empathy] ought to be required reading for the pathologically narcissistic POTUS and all his lackeys. * Library Journal *This important book deserves to be taken seriously by anybody interested in social welfare. -- Constantine Sandis * Times Higher Education *A clear and useful explanation of an often misunderstood concept, Social Empathy brings together sociology, psychology, social work, and cognitive neuroscience to illustrate how to become better advocates for justice. -- Steve Brock * Stevo's Book of the Week *The strength of this book is Segal's argument that the psychological literature on interpersonal empathy should be expanded to include a macro-sociological level. * Choice *Table of ContentsPreface1. What Is Empathy?2. Why Do We Need Empathy?3, If It’s So Important, Why Is Empathy So Hard?4. Are Power and Politics Barriers to Empathy?5. What If Stress, Depression, and Other Health Factors Block Empathy?6. Where Is Religion in Empathy?7. Can We Have Empathy with Technology?8. Social Empathy—Making the World a Better PlaceEpilogue: Teaching Social EmpathyNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisA profound look at the crisis of work and the collapse of the safety net, and a vision for a better way forward, rooted in America’s cooperative spirit, from the founder of the Freelancers Union  “Read this essential book to see how we can and must build the future.”—Reid Hoffman, co-founder of Linkedin Mutualism: It’s not capitalism and it’s not socialism. It’s the future. The twentieth century changed every facet of life for American workers: how much they could expect to earn and what they had the right to demand. But by 2027, a majority of Americans—from low-wage service workers to white-collar professionals—won’t be traditional employees. Benefits like paid sick leave, pensions, 401(k)s, disability insurance, and health care will be nearly extinct. To meet the needs of this new generation of workers, the government has done almost nothing. 

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Book SynopsisThe shifting meaning of race and class in the age of Trump The profound concentration of economic power in the United States in recent decades has produced surprising new forms of racialization. In Producers, Parasites, Patriots, Daniel Martinez HoSang and Joseph E. Lowndes show that while racial subordination is an enduring feature of U.S. political history, it continually changes in response to shifting economic and political conditions, interests, and structures. The authors document the changing politics of race and class in the age of Trump across a broad range of phenomena, showing how new forms of racialization work to alter the economic protections of whiteness while promoting some conservatives of color as models of the neoliberal regime. Through careful analyses of diverse political sites and conflicts—racially charged elections, attacks on public-sector unions, new forms of white precarity, the rise of black and brown political elites, militia uprisings, multiculturalism on the far right—they highlight new, interwoven deployments of race in the ascendant age of inequality. Using the concept of “racial transposition,” the authors demonstrate how racial meanings and signification can be transferred from one group to another to shore up both neoliberalism and racial hierarchy.From the militia movement to the Alt-Right to the mainstream Republican Party, Producers, Parasites, Patriots brings to light the changing role of race in right-wing politics.Trade Review"In exploring the contemporary politics of whiteness, Daniel Martinez HoSang and Joseph E. Lowndes offer a powerful analysis of white precarity embedded in an antiracist critique of white supremacy in multicultural times. Producers, Parasites, Patriots is a necessary and welcome work."—Cristina Beltrán, New York University"In the age of neoliberal precarity, the authors argue, traditional protections of “whiteness” no longer prevent government workers from being depicted as parasites, and conservatives of color, along with languages of civil rights and multiculturalism, get resignified as models of conservative patriotism. This is a well-written and detailed examination of the ways racial identity gets transposed."—CHOICE"It offers a clear and unique understanding of how the state of contemporary politics necessitates a re‐thinking about the ideological barriers that we often assume polemically separate the political left and right."—Sociology of Health & Illness"HoSang and Lowndes have opened-up space for dialogue around race and class in the present age. In doing so, they bring to light the limitations of liberal anti-racism."—New Political Science"Daniel Martinez HoSang and Joseph E. Lowndes state in their fascinating new book Producers, Parasites, Patriots that only by providing a more critical understanding of contemporary right-wing politics can we be prepared to resist the growth of far-right movements."—Political Science Quarterly "Producers, Parasites and Patriots offers compelling insight for a general public trying to make sense of the dynamic,complex, and at times contradictory behavior of the American political right."—Journal of African American Studies

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Book SynopsisExtending from the 1750s to the present, In Pursuit of Privilege recounts upper-class New Yorkers' struggle to create a world guarded against outsiders. Clifton Hood shows elites' part in the larger story of the city through class conflict and their role in New York's cultural and economic foundations.Trade ReviewThis is the history of a small but hugely consequential group of Americans, whose access to economic resources provided them with unprecedented social, cultural, and political power. Clifton Hood's lively excursion into their world of social clubs and museums, dinners and finishing schools covers more than 250 years and shows persuasively how the upper class made New York and how New York constantly changed its upper class. -- Sven Beckert, author of Empire of Cotton: A Global HistoryEvery city has a social and economic elite. But as Hood shows, the New York elite has always been larger, wealthier, more fluid, and more powerful than in other places, enabling it to simultaneously perpetuate class inequality and create cultural institutions that are world-class in every field. Groundbreaking and comprehensive, The Pursuit of Privilege illuminates three centuries of the New York City elite's power and influence on city building. Bravo to Hood. -- Kenneth T. Jackson, editor of The Encyclopedia of New York CityHood's comprehensive, three-centuries-long survey of the experiences of New York City's upper class reveals both the dynamism and the tensions inherent in that ever-evolving group. His study extends from wealthy colonists in the 1750s through nineteenth-century entrepreneurs and nouveaux riches to those he dubs the contemporary 'antielitist elite,' mixing insightful general observations with telling portraits of particular men, women, or families who succeeded or failed to join the upper class. This book will interest anyone who wants to understand the origins of New York City's unique combination of economic, social, and cultural institutions. -- Mary Beth Norton, author of In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692Hood's revealing book provides us with a suggestive portrait of a powerful and self-conscious elite that for over two centuries has maintained its position through its control over a constellation of exclusive organizations. He explores not only the self-conception of this elite but also its shifting relationship with its environs. No comparable study exists, making In Pursuit of Privilege a welcome contribution to historical writing on one of the world's great cities. -- Richard John, author of Network Nation: Inventing American TelecommunicationsIn Pursuit of Privilege is an impressive, detailed study of the upper class in New York over a period of more than two centuries. Written engagingly, the book distinguishes itself in the literature with its long-term view of New York's elite class, covering many of the major events in New York's history from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War draft riots to the rise of corporate America. An important contribution to the literature on the history of New York and elite society in the United States. -- Susie Pak, author of Gentlemen Bankers: The World of J. P. MorganIn Pursuit of Privilege, appropriately, is a wealth of information. And its primary-source materials—diaries, letters, memoirs, minutes, period fictions—are a true pleasure.... In Pursuit of Privilege is at its best as metropolitan history, assiduously researched, reminding us not only of New York's astonishing accomplishments but also of its inglorious past. -- William L. Hamilton * Wall Street Journal *[In Pursuit of Privilege] explores the blue blood that has coursed through the city's veins since before the American Revolution.... [Hood] earnestly places the well-traversed late 19th century in a broader historical perspective and identifies what distinguished New York's elites from the upper crusts of other cities. -- Sam Roberts * The New York Times *A nuanced and substantial historical survey of the city's upper class.... Much about the book feels fresh and relevant to conversations about privilege and equal opportunity. -- Ada Calhoun * Times Literary Supplement *This is a very well-written, organized, extensively researched study that makes significant contributions to urban, social class, and US history. * Choice *A valuable work on New York City history. . . . that will add to anyone’s knowledge of New York City and how it operates. -- Joseph Varga * The American Historical Review *Fascinating, absolutely absorbing, rich of anecdotes and stories that will let you discover people, places, who made New York City. -- Anna Maria Polidori * Articles and more... *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Upper Class Is a Foreign Country1. "The Best Mart on the Continent": The 1750s and 1760s2. Uncertain Adjustments: The 1780s and 1790s3. Wealth: The 1820s and Beyond4. All for the Union: The 1860s5. A Dynamic Businessman's Aristocracy: The 1890s6. The Ways of Millionaireville: The 1890s7. Making Spaces of Their Own: The 1940s8. The Antielitist Elite: The 1970s and BeyondConclusion: The Limits of AntielitismAcknowledgmentsAbbreviations for Selected Manuscript SourcesNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewJack’s investigation redirects attention from the matter of access to the matter of inclusion. Rather than parse the spurious meritocracy of admissions, his book challenges universities to support the diversity they indulge in advertising. * New Yorker *What Jack discovered challenges us to think carefully about the campus lives of poor students and the responsibility elite institutions have for not only their education but also their social and economic mobility…The Privileged Poor breaks new ground on social and educational questions of great import. * Washington Post *[An] eye-opening exposure of what it’s like to be poor on elite college campuses…Jack’s book brings home the pain and reality of on-campus poverty and puts the blame squarely on elite institutions for fostering policies that often ‘emphasize class differences, amplifying students’ feelings of difference and undercutting their sense of belonging.’ * Washington Post *A sobering reminder that, despite considerable efforts in recent years to increase the intake of talented young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds into leading universities and colleges, much more needs to be done to prepare and support them during their studies if they are to thrive. -- Andrew Jack * Financial Times *[An] examination of the way elite colleges and universities welcome, and don’t welcome, students from the working classes. -- Edwin Aponte * The Nation *Navigating college is hard for many young people, and for low-income students or kids whose parents didn’t go to college, it can be even trickier…So many professors have told me this book made them rethink their own classrooms. -- Elissa Nadworny * NPR Books *The lesson is plain—simply admitting low-income students is just the start of a university’s obligations. Once they’re on campus, colleges must show them that they are full-fledged citizen. -- David Kirp * American Prospect *Jack wants people to see beyond his personal success to his research findings: Elite colleges not only fail to admit enough low-income students; they also fail to care for the ones they let in. -- Chris Quintana * Chronicle of Higher Education *This book’s central message is as plain as it is substantial: access is not the same as inclusion. Increasing the number of low-income students in higher education is only the start of a university’s obligations…As a skillful interviewer and insightful observer, Jack reveals deep-seated class disparities that manifest themselves not just in the clothes students wear and the holidays they take, but in what they expect of their professors and envisage for themselves while in university and beyond. In so doing, Jack opens up new ground to interrogate the ‘long shadow’ of class inequality throughout the educational system. For all these reasons, this book is a considerable achievement. -- Malik Fercovic * LSE Review of Books *[A] remarkable book…I believe every administrator, faculty and student in college should read this to understand some obstacles students encounter in college that often go unnoticed. -- Andrew Martinez * Diverse: Issues in Higher Education *Jack demonstrates…simply admitting low-income students to elite universities does not, by itself, produce equal outcomes. Too often, university policies, institutional cultures and norms, and even campus jobs exacerbate pre-existing inequalities, widen class differences, reinforce feelings of difference and undercut a sense of belonging. -- Steven Mintz * Inside Higher Ed *In a word, brilliant. Jack uncovers the myriad ways in which poverty handicaps even the most talented youth as they navigate college. Not stopping there, Jack carefully details how universities are no mere bystanders; he lays bare how they preach openness as they practice exclusion. The Privileged Poor is a provocative, eye-opening account of what it means to be poor on a college campus and is essential reading for all who are concerned about the future of our children. -- Reshma Saujani, founder and CEO of Girls Who CodeThe Privileged Poor is so essential. Our higher ed community very much needs a shared language and a set of research-based recommendations when it comes to designing and running institutional efforts and initiatives intended to level the postsecondary playing field. -- Joshua Kim * Inside Higher Ed *For years, elite colleges have claimed to be the saviors of low-income students. With careful research Anthony Jack pulls back the curtain and reveals the real college experiences of these students on an Ivy-covered campus. Best of all, he demands that we do something about it. -- Sara Goldrick-Rab, Founding Director of the Hope Center for College, Community, and JusticeProfessor Anthony Jack illustrates the multidimensional nature of poverty and privilege by providing a window into the nuanced experiences of low-income, first-generation college students at elite institutions. Professor Jack’s keen analysis and clear argument helps all of us—students, teachers, administrators, and system leaders—to identify and fill the cracks through which many students can fall. This important book will help us ensure even greater access, equity, and success in college for the vast array of talented students in our great American mosaic. -- Daniel R. Porterfield, CEO, The Aspen InstituteThe Privileged Poor is three books in one: an engrossing personal memoir, a collection of rigorous scholarship, and a powerful manifesto for a new movement to improve the lives of low-income students at elite universities. It’s an essential work, humane and candid, that challenges and expands our understanding of the lives of contemporary college students. -- Paul Tough, author of Helping Children Succeed: What Works and WhyAnthony Jack’s beautifully written book provides a riveting account of the experiences at elite campuses of students from low-income families. He shows how badly many elite schools understand the experiences of students from poor backgrounds and how these failures of understanding undermine efforts to expand access. The book is a must-read for anyone who hopes to help colleges and universities meet their aspirations to be engines of mobility. -- Danielle Allen, author of Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A.In this insightful study, Anthony Abraham Jack examines how disparate precollege experiences affect the cultural and social resources economically disadvantaged students bring to elite colleges, and how they use these resources in navigating life on campus. The Privileged Poor is an eye opener even for a professor like me who has taught courses on inequality at elite universities for nearly a half century. It is, in short, a tour de force that will be read, discussed, and debated for decades. -- William Julius Wilson, author of More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner CityThrough meticulous interviews and rich personal narratives, Jack brilliantly brings alive the experiences of low-income college students at elite colleges and uncovers an important group—the ‘privileged poor’—who have frequently been overlooked in prior work. This book should be studied closely by anyone interested in improving diversity and inclusion in higher education and provides a moving call to action for us all. -- Raj Chetty, Harvard UniversityJack’s well-researched study is matched by his advocacy for adding programs that could help bring these students closer to the already privileged. * Improper Bostonian *A book about social class in American higher education and the often painful culture clashes it gives rise to. -- Matthew Reisz * Times Higher Education *What Jack contributes to the recent spate of books on college is not only the inside access to what we might reasonably presume to be America’s oldest and most prestigious university, but the illumination of a distinct group of students within this elite institution. -- Mitchell L. Stevens * Public Books *Jack looks under the hood, recounting the myriad ways that low-income students, who are overwhelmingly students of color, experienced the relationships and resources—or lack thereof—at an elite university…Colleges fail to understand and effectively step in to support low-income students in general, and the doubly disadvantaged in particular. -- Julia Freeland Fisher * The 74 *A compelling and valuable read. -- Elizabeth M. Lee * American Journal of Sociology *

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Book SynopsisThe Mongol conquest of north China inflicted terrible destruction, wiping out more than one-third of the population and dismantling the existing social order. Jinping Wang recounts the riveting story of how northern Chinese people adapted to these trying circumstances and interacted with their conquerors to create a drastically new social order.Trade ReviewIn this new social history, Jinping Wang challenges the tired old clichés of ‘Sinicization,’ guided by a supposedly dominant ‘Confucian literati’ class. -- Christopher AtwoodA large body of important work has been produced on the social history and local history of middle-period China over the last thirty years, but virtually all of it has focused only on south China. Now the emergence of inscriptional sources, some newly available and some simply overlooked, has become the basis for a new wave of rich social-historical work on north China that is transforming our understanding of the middle period. Jinping Wang is a leader in this new wave of northern social history, and her book is a landmark in the field. -- Robert HymesThe whole book, as well as its remarkable quality of translations, are a model of sinological work. It improves our knowledge and understanding of society during the Mongol period and the Yuan dynasty, and from now on any sociological study in this vast field of research will have to refer to it. -- Pierre MarsoneThis study of Han Chinese turning to a school of popular Daoism through a turbulent period of history is remarkable, especially because of the way Wang Jinping utilized epigraphic materials to demonstrate how this social phenomenon emerged. The resilience of Quanzhen institutions in the face of the challenges of Mongol-favoured Buddhism and then imperial Ming Neo-Confucianism has never before been so well described and explained. It is an admirable work of fine scholarship. -- Wang Gungwu

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Book SynopsisPolitical journalist Michael Tomasky tracks an exciting change among  progressive economists who are overturning decades of conservative dogma and offering an alternative version of capitalism that can serve broadly shared prosperity to all.Engaging, briskly paced ... On balance, history appears to be on Tomasky’s side. —The New York Times Book ReviewIn the first half of the twentieth century the Keynesian brand of economics, which saw government spending as a necessary spur to economic growth, prevailed. Then in the 1970s, conservatives fought back. Once they got people to believe a few simple ideas instead—that only the free market could produce growth, that taxes and regulation stifle growth—the battle was won. The era of conservative dogma, often called neoliberal economics, had begun. It ushered in increasing inequality, a shrinking middle class, and declining public investment. For fifty years, liberals have not

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Book SynopsisThe history of Tanzimat in the Ottoman Empire has largely been narrated as a period of equality, reform, and progress, often framing it as the backdrop to modern Turkey. Inspired by Walter Benjamin’s exhortation to study the oppressed to understand the rule and the ruler, Talin Suciyan reexamines this era from the perspective of the Armenians.

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Book SynopsisThe Credential Society by Randall Collins is a classic on higher education and its role in American society. Forty years later, its controversial claim that the expansion of American education has not increased social mobility, but created a cycle of credential inflation, has proven remarkably prescient.Trade ReviewRandall Collins's The Credential Society is a theoretical and empirical tour de force, a brilliant study of the expansion of schooling in twentieth-century America that goes well beyond its central topic to illuminate connections between educational change and the world of work, the nature of status, and the role of knowledge and technology in modern life. Discovering it in graduate school was a transformative experience, and I'm delighted that it is available once again to inspire new generations of students and scholars as it inspired me. -- Paul DiMaggio, New York UniversityForty years after its original release, The Credential Society remains a powerful tool to renew our understanding of crucial topics as diverse as cultural reproduction, opportunity hoarding, professional monopoly and meritocracy. At a time when analyses of the knowledge society are proliferating, Collins’ analysis remains as fresh and penetrating as ever. This visionary classic will keep its place on syllabi for years to come. -- Michèle Lamont, former president of the American Sociological AssociationRandall Collins is widely seen as one of the best sociologists of the last 50 years, and The Credential Society is filled with gems and wonderful insights. It is a classic book on a pressing topic that remains deeply relevant today. -- Annette Lareau, University of PennsylvaniaThis important book is an antidote to atheoretical work in contemporary studies of higher education and is a critical complement to the study of stratification. Technology has changed much about how we work. It has also changed a great deal about how our higher education institutions are organized. This book speaks to why those two domains are interrelated. Moreover, it provides a roadmap for the systematic study of higher education and inequality. -- From the foreword by Tressie McMillan CottomCollins’s insights are especially prescient, as the scholar Tressie McMillan Cottom notes in the new edition’s foreword, when considering how for-profit colleges have essentially preyed on the insecurities—and leeched off the loans and subsidies—of poor and working-class students. -- Hua Hsu * The New Yorker *Table of ContentsPreface to the Legacy EditionForeword, by Tressie M. Cottom Foreword, by Mitchell L. Stevens 1. The Myth of Technocracy 2. Organizational Careers 3. The Political Economy of Culture 4. The United States in Historical Time 5. The Rise of the Credential System 6. The Politics of Professions 7. The Politics of a Sinecure Society References Index

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Book SynopsisWinlow and Hall argue that the only way to resurrect leftist politics is to begin from the beginning again. They identify the root causes of its maladies, describe how new cultural obsessions displaced core unifying principles, and outline how a new reincarnation of the left can win in the 21st century.Table of Contents1. The mortgage on the left’s future foreclosed 2. Democracy, without the people? The rise and fall of left populism 3. Wrong turns 4. Beginnings 5. Changes 6. The New Left 7. Postmodernism, neoliberalism and the left 8. Identity politics 9. The politics of nostalgia 10. A return to economics 11. Futures

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisTitle: Great Indian Middle Class <>Binding: Paperback <>Author: Pavan K Varma <>Publisher: Baker & Taylor

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Book SynopsisA deeply empathetic (Publishers Weekly, starred review) must-read (Marion Nestle) that weaves lyrical storytelling and fascinating research into a compelling narrative (San Francisco Chronicle) to look at dietary differences along class lines and nutritional disparities in America, illuminating exactly how inequality starts on the dinner plate.Inequality in America manifests in many ways, but perhaps nowhere more than in how we eat. From her years of field research, sociologist and ethnographer Priya Fielding-Singh brings us into the kitchens of dozens of families from varied educational, economic, and ethnoracial backgrounds to explore how-and why-we eat the way we do. We get to know four families intimately: the Bakers, a Black family living below the federal poverty line; the Williamses, a working-class white family just above it; the Ortegas, a middle-class Latinx family; and the Cains, an affluent white family.

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Book Synopsis* What does 'social structure' mean?* What are the principal ways in which societies are 'organized' or 'structured'?* How can structural ideas be used in sociological analysis?Despite the importance of the concept of social structure, sociologists have not agreed on how to define it and discussions have been plagued by confusion. In this concise and enlightening text, Jose Lopez and John Scott argue that analysing the conceptual frameworks in which different concepts of social structure are embedded can help to clarify their meanings and reshape debates. They show that competing conceptions of social structure can be seen as capturing significant and different aspects of the reality of social organization. Social Structure is organized around a discussion of 'institutional structure', 'relational structure' and 'embodied structure'. It argues that these conceptions of social structure can be fruitfully combined in order to provide a richer and more powerful overview, iTable of ContentsPreface and acknowledgementsWhat is social structure?Conceptualizing social structureInstitutional structureRelational structureLevels of structureEmbodied structureBibliographyIndex.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Outstanding scholarship that is at once comprehensive, relevant, provocative, and necessary." -- -Steven Wexler California State University, Northridge "Through a dense and layered study which seamlessly connects sustained philosophical readings of Plato, Kant, Heidegger, Derrida, Jameson, and Negri with a critical analysis of some of the changes resulting from technological innovation and globalization, and incisive interpretations of some of the icons of digital culture, including the iPod, post-cyber/nano-punk and films like The Matrix, Wilkie offers in his book a cutting-edge theorization of digital culture that will instantly establish him as one of the most exciting new voices working in critical and cultural theory today." -- -Peter McLaren University of California, Los Angeles "Touching on the production of knowledge in the digital age, literature, and cinema-and weaving Marx, Heidegger, Derrida, Lyotard, et al. throughout-this book is a clarion call for cultural theory: having promoted digital culture, cultural theory must return to focus on the struggle of labor and how technological development can best serve the interests of all. Highly recommended." -Choice "The Digital Condition advances a groundbreaking analysis of digital culture and argues that the digital environment has obscured the implications of class difference, changing digital reality and perception. Underlying digital culture are social and historical relations that require class analysis to explain why new realities are determined by global class inequalities. The result is a powerful guide perfect for any college-level computer issues or cultural history holding." -California BookwatchTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1. The Spirit Technological 2. Global Networks and the Materiality of Immaterial Labor 3. Reading and Writing in the Digital Age 4. The Ideology of the Digital Me Notes Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisA History of American Working-Class Literature sheds light not only on the lived experience of class but the enormously varied creativity of working-class people throughout the history of what is now the United States. By charting a chronology of working-class experience, as the conditions of work have changed over time, this volume shows how the practice of organizing, economic competition, place, and time shape opportunity and desire. The subjects range from transportation narratives and slave songs to the literature of deindustrialization and globalization. Among the literary forms discussed are memoir, journalism, film, drama, poetry, speeches, fiction, and song. Essays focus on plantation, prison, factory, and farm, as well as on labor unions, workers'' theaters, and innovative publishing ventures. Chapters spotlight the intersections of class with race, gender, and place. The variety, depth, and many provocations of this History are certain to enrich the study and teaching of American literature.Trade Review'Coles (Univ. of Pittsburgh) and Lauter (ret., Trinity College) bring together essays that challenge the notion of the 'American dream'. The essays contextualize the experience of the working class in the US and consider its representation in literature. … this collection appears at a time of extreme class inequality in the the US. To write about working class literature is a political act because it carries writers and readers beyond the text and into the realities of working-class lives. … Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.' S. L. Rottschafer, CHOICETable of ContentsIntroduction Nicholas Coles and Paul Lauter; 1. Transportation narratives: servants, convicts, and the literature of colonization in British America Matthew Pethers; 2. Why work? Early American theories and practices Paul Lauter; 3. Labor and literary culture in and beyond bondage: early African-American expressive culture John Ernest; 4. Lowell mill girls: women's work and writing in the early nineteenth century Christopher Hager; 5. 'Wet paper between us': Whitman and the transformations of labor Peter Riley; 6. Millions and mills: class and the ante-bellum novel Amy Schrager Lang; 7. 'We are not slaves': the shadow of slavery in nineteenth-century poetry and song John Marsh; 8. Utopian labors: work in nineteenth- and twentieth-century utopian and dystopian fiction James Catano; 9. Towards a more perfect union: marriage plots in socialist fiction, 1901–17 Alicia Williamson; 10. What workers were reading, 1830–1930 Jan Goggans; 11. Getting the word out: institutions and forms of publication Mark Noonan; 12. Genre and form in working-class life writing, from Haymarket to the New Deal Michael Collins; 13. Working the fields: love and labor in farm fiction from 1890 to the Dust Bowl Nicholas Coles; 14. Proletarian literature: fiction and the predicaments of class culture Lawrence Hanley; 15. Go left young women: proletarian women writers Michelle Tokarczyk; 16. 'I have seen black hands': a twentieth-century African American tradition Bill Mullen; 17. The American labor song tradition Richard Flacks; 18. Prison literature from the early Republic to Attica Joe Lockard; 19. The workers' theatre of the twentieth century Amy Brady; 20. The evolution of the poetry of work: from the Red Decade to the end of the Cold War Cary Nelson; 21. The labor plot: one hundred years of class struggle and the silver screen Kathleen Newman; 22. Globalization, migration, and contemporary working-class literature Joseph Entin; 23. Narrating economic restructuring: working-class literature after deindustrialization Sherry Lee Linkon; 24. A turn of the sphere: the place of class in intersectional analysis Sara Appel.

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Book SynopsisThis revisionist history of caste politics in twentieth-century Bengal argues that the decline of this form of political mobilization in the region was as much the result of coercion as of consent. It traces this process through the political career of Jogendranath Mandal, the leader of the Dalit movement in eastern India and a prominent figure in the history of India and Pakistan, over the transition of Partition and Independence. Utilising Mandal''s private papers, this study reveals both the strength and achievements of his movement for Dalit recognition, as well as the major challenges and constraints he encountered. Departing from analyses that have stressed the role of integration, Dwaipayan Sen demonstrates how a wide range of coercions shaped the eventual defeat of Dalit politics in Bengal. The region''s acclaimed ''castelessness'' was born of the historical refusal of Mandal''s struggle to pose the caste question.Trade Review'This pioneering and probing study of Jogendranath Mandal and his political predicament adds a completely new dimension to the history of Bengal. It brings out in detail some enduring caste-conflicts that marked the politics of the partition of the province and that have so far gone unacknowledged in mainstream histories of the subcontinent. An original and lasting contribution to modern South Asian history.' Dipesh Chakrabarty, University of Chicago'With lucidity and passion, Sen recovers a profoundly important history of Bengal Dalit self-assertion between 1930s and 1960s. Focussing on a remarkable leader, it grows into the biography of a 'general category': provocatively arguing that Dalit politics was crushed by, and not integrated into, mainstream nationalism.' Tanika Sarkar, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi'This is a crucially important book that will help solve the mystery of the disappearance of the caste question from West Bengal's politics. Focusing on the career of Jogendranath Mandal, the foremost political leader of the Namasudra caste in the 1940s, Sen has brought to our attention much new archival material and raised some provocative questions.' Partha Chatterjee, Columbia University, New York, and Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, CalcuttaTable of ContentsList of figures; Acknowledgments; Introduction: rethinking castelessness in mid-20th-century Bengal; 1. Jogendranath Mandal, the politics of caste, and provincial autonomy, 1932–37; 2. Representation, education and agrarian reform: Jogendranath Mandal and the demands of Dalit politics, 1937–43; 3. A separate political existence: the making of the Bengal Scheduled Castes Federation, 1943–45; 4. 'No matter how, Jogendranath had to be defeated': the Scheduled Castes Federation and the partition of Bengal, 1945–47; 5. Betrayed expectations: East Pakistan and West Bengal, 1947–50; 6. 'A Caste Hindu State': Jogendranath Mandal and the forced removal of Dalit refugees, 1950–64; 7. The decline of the caste question: the defeat of Dalit politics in Bengal, 1952–68; Conclusion: '… the most casteist society in India'; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisThis book explains a long-standing puzzle in American politics: why so many Americans support downwardly redistributive social welfare programs, when such support seems to fly in the face of standard conceptions of the American public as anti-government, individualistic, and racially prejudiced. Bringing class attitudes into the analysis, Spencer Piston demonstrates through rigorous empirical analysis that sympathy for the poor and resentment of the rich explain American support for downwardly redistributive programs - not only those that benefit the middle class, but also those that explicitly target the poor. The book captures an important and neglected component of citizen attitudes toward a host of major public policies and candidate evaluations. It also explains why government does so little to combat economic inequality; in key instances, political elites downplay class considerations, deactivating sympathy for the poor and resentment of the rich.Trade Review'This powerful and important book shows that - despite their reputation - Americans want their government to do more to help the least well off. With new evidence and rigorous analysis, Piston shows that most Americans believe the poor have less than they deserve, the rich have more than they deserve, and the appearance of public opposition to progressive economic policies stems from a lack of understanding of who benefits not an opposition to downward redistribution.' Martin I. Gilens, Princeton University, New Jersey'To understand the persistence of wide economic disparities in American society, Spencer Piston's important new book places ultimate responsibility on elite politics and discourse rather than mass public opinion. This is a vital addition to the growing literature on Americans' political views of class and inequality rooted in rigorous empirical evidence rather than conventional (elite) wisdom on both sides of the political aisle.' Leslie McCall, Presidential Professor of Sociology and Political Science, The Graduate Center, City University of New York'Piston suggests that contrary to conventional wisdom, class attitudes are not only common among the American public but that these views play a substantial role in shaping political preferences. … when the public is asked to think about politics in their own words, they often do so in terms of class. … The book offers an important and compelling argument about how the public views the rich and the poor, which is bolstered by clear and precisely written prose. Piston introduces a novel perspective on U.S. class politics that I hope will shape how scholars think about social class, government redistribution, and economic inequality.' William W. Franko, Perspectives on Politics'In a political moment when much of our collective wisdom about what people want from government and how government ought to respond to citizens is under question, Piston's excellent book turns our attention to strong levels of support for redistributive public policies present in the electorate that come as a consequence of sympathy for the poor or resentment toward the rich.' Laura C. Bucci, Public Opinion Quarterly'The book should be read by all social science scholars seeking to understand how 'class matters' to American politics today. … The methodological pluralism of this work is one of its strengths, aiding the author in making a causal claim for how attitudes toward the rich and poor impact political preferences.' Anthony R. DiMaggio, Political Science Quarterly'Piston's research affirms a broader insight of contemporary political science: Most human beings view politics through the lens of group identity, not ideology … This theoretical framework helps explain why voters in the ANES surveys were less likely to complain about the GOP's indifference to 'inequality', than about the party's undue deference to the rich: Inequality is an ideological abstraction, 'the rich' is a widely resented social group.' Eric Levitz, New YorkTable of ContentsIntroduction: reigning myths about class attitudes; 1. In their own words; 2. A theory of attitudes toward class groups and their political consequences; 3. Attitudes toward the poor and the rich in the United States; 4. Why so many Americans support downward redistribution; 5. The role of political knowledge; 6. Consequences for vote choice; 7. Why don't politicians listen?; Conclusion: the path behind and the path forward.

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Book SynopsisDuring the 1970s and early 1980s, Egypt experienced swift economic growth resulting from a regional oil boom. Oddly, this economic growth hardly registered in Egyptian public discourse, which continuously claimed that the country was experiencing multiple economic, social, and cultural crises. This book sets out to investigate this discrepancy and to offer a revisionist history of the period. It documents the massive socio-economic mobility in Egypt by analysing relevant statistical data and ethnographic evidence, indicating the changes in the employment structure and the spread of mass consumption. Relli Shechter further examines a wide array of cultural resources, such as Egyptian academic writing, the press, the cinema, and the literature, in which critics lamented ''what went wrong'' in Egypt. By doing so, he offers a local version of a wider Middle Eastern and international story: the global formation of middle-class societies whose members strove for respectable lives with only pTrade Review'Through a thorough investigation of the socio-economic mobility, employment structure, and the spread of consumption, The Rise of the Egyptian Middle Class lays the foundations for the corrective argument that the oil boom, not Sadat's open door policies, was the driving force behind the social transformations in Post-Nasser Egypt. With a wealth of statistical data ethnographic evidence, and profound historical analysis, Shechter produced a wonderful and long-awaited contribution to the study of the Egyptian society since President Sadat.' Hanan Hammad, Addran College of Liberal Arts, TexasTable of Contents1. Introduction; 2. Working into the middle class; 3. 'Crisis of supply in every household'; 4. 'Provocative consumption'; 5. 'Parasites'; 6. The resurgence of middle-class Islam; 7. Conclusion: socio-economic mobility and discontent.

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Book SynopsisA light-hearted look at England's, often less than noble, nobility between 1066 and 1707.

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Book SynopsisThis book provides research on the influences, disparities and current issues of socioeconomic status (SES). Chapter One discusses socio-economic status, inequality and academic achievement. Chapter Two reviews literature on socioeconomic variables that predict a child''s executive functioning and possible contextual and cognitive variables mediating this association. Chapter Three examines socioeconomic and racial disparities in child health and health outcomes. Chapter Four analyses attitudes toward poverty and the government safety net programs in relationship to income and party affiliation, and investigates theories to better understand the polarised attitudes toward socioeconomic status, inequality and poverty in America. Chapter Five provides a review of three different studies which underpin the proposal of the benefits and pitfalls of high SES. Chapter Six reports the findings of two questionnaire surveys focusing on the effects of socioeconomic status and trait self-control on seeking relationships.

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Book SynopsisThis book is based on a study of household indebtedness in an upper-middle income economy known as Mauritius, and authored by a vibrant team of researchers from the University of Mauritius. The novelty of this publication is that it fills the gap with respect to the paucity of microeconomic studies pertaining to and relevant for developing countries. At the local and regional level, there is no consolidated work that studies household indebtedness with so much rigour and with such deep-rooted analysis. All in all, this publication uses different data sources and a mixed methodology approach to investigate the factors related to household indebtedness. The main advantage of this publication is that it is based on a comprehensive survey of indebted households in Mauritius. While the survey questionnaire tracks micro-socioeconomic characteristics of households, the empirical analysis is highly scientific and uses the latest statistical and econometric tools, techniques and softwares. It has a good review of literature backed by sound macroeconomic analysis and puts into practice the state of the art of econometric analysis. The discussions are clear and provide insights into expenditure patterns, financial constraints and vulnerability of households both within and among different income categories. The findings uncover specific traits of the typical Mauritian household debtor. The findings in this book are also compared with studies based on other developed and developing countries. Moreover, the book probes deeper into cases of over-indebtedness and the different reasons that could explain various financial commitments of a typical household debtor. Policy recommendations are provided to open the outreach to policy makers and researchers. Lastly, the book is also useful to the academic community and students in terms of its academic endeavors and achievements.

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Book SynopsisFrom the bottom to the top of our economy, capitalism is too blunt an instrument to tackle Britain's epidemic of inequality. Soaring rents, unfair taxation and a growing gig economy have brought about unprecedented economic shame: Amazon warehouse workers living in tents, nurses turning to foodbanks, London firemen commuting hundreds of miles to work. Even those higher up the ladder are losing their grip on the life they were promised. Barristers take home less than the minimum wage and doctors are starting out with £100,000 student debts on salaries lower than the national average. We’re all facing a new economic phenomenon – in-work poverty. At the same time a generation of young professionals is coming to terms with never being able to own even the cheapest home in their area. From the bottom to the top of our economy, capitalism is too blunt an instrument to tackle Britain's epidemic of inequality. Soaring rents, unfair taxation and a growing gig economy have brought about unprecedented economic shame: Amazon warehouse workers living in tents, nurses turning to foodbanks, London firemen commuting hundreds of miles to work. Even those higher up the ladder are losing their grip on the life they were promised. Barristers take home less than the minimum wage and doctors are starting out with £100,000 student debts on salaries lower than the national average. We’re all facing a new economic phenomenon – in-work poverty. At the same time a generation of young professionals is coming to terms with never being able to own even the cheapest home in their area. Hard work no longer pays off. But there is hope for a better, fairer future.Trade Review‘How the system became rigged so that even the fortunate lose out: a masterpiece.’ * Danny Dorling, author of Inequality and the 1% *‘The latest in the series of powerful books on the divisions in modern Britain, and will take its place on many bookshelves beside Reni Eddo-Lodge’s Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race and Owen Jones’s Chavs.’ * Andrew Marr, Sunday Times on Posh Boys *‘[A] hard-hitting, forensic takedown.’ -- Herald (Glasgow)

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Book SynopsisWith less than two percent of the total Maori population holding a doctorate, the need for Maori leadership planning in academia has never been greater. The purpose of this book is to present the experiences of new and emerging Maori academics as a guide for others aspiring to follow. In 2010 Professor Sir Mason Durie oversaw the creation of the Te Manu Ao Academy at Massey University, designed to advance Maori academic leadership. In partnership with Nga Pae o te Maramatanga, the course looked to develop participants' thinking around effective leadership principles, values and ideas. This book grew from that programme, in response to the need to create the space for new and emerging Maori academic leaders to speak openly about what leadership means both personally and professionally.

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Book SynopsisIn this volume on the history of the European nobility in the modern era, the boundary between the early modern and 'real' modern periods around 1800 is deliberately crossed. By centring on the nobility, the authors undertake a new exploration of the continuities and ruptures in European history. In the three thematic areas of law, politics and aesthetics, the noble knights' utilisation of the early modern courts in the Holy Roman Empire is considered, along with the social and political identity of the English nobility in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The contributions make clear the virtuosity with which the nobility met the challenges of their time, and how they managed to be simultaneously 'contemporary' and retain a specific aristocratic character.

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Book SynopsisAnd finally, what were The problems inherent in the transformation of untouchability under British colonial rule and the subsequent development of the liberation movements of the depressed castes which constitute the modern phase of the problem of untouchability?

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Book SynopsisThe book discusses the rigid caste system in India, perpetuating socio-economic inequality. Privileges for higher castes are inherited, while lower castes face permanent handicaps. Privatization and globalization worsen the divide. The solution lies in educating lower castes and implementing ameliorative programs to create a more equal society.

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Book SynopsisText in Danish.

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