Social classes Books

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 SynopsisEconomist Rob Larson combines wit, righteous anger, and clear-eyed analysis as he dissects the lifestyle, moral bankruptcy, and stupidly large sums of money hoarded by the disgustingly wealthy.The fact that we live in one of the most unequal societies in the history of the world is becoming common knowledge. And while lists of “richest people in x country” may be easy to come by, how much do we really know about the billionaires who sit atop our global economic system? Who are they, really? How did they accumulate their ill-gotten gains? And what kind of depravities do they use to maintain their positions?Turning their own weapons of class-war against them—from the fawning profiles found in the Mansion

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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. The Accidental Duchess is her fourth book.The Duchess has a podcast titled Duchess, where she interviews chatelaines of castles and stately homes throughout the United Kingdom. Her interviewees include 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.

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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 SynopsisAgainst Happiness is a thorough and powerful critique of the “happiness agenda,” revealing the flaws of its concept of happiness and advocating a renewed focus on equality and justice.Trade ReviewHappiness studies started as an idealistic project but took shortcuts and so did not fulfill its ambitions. This important and trustworthy book takes us back to the drawing board to rebuild the foundations of this field. The new vision won’t make the science and policy of happiness easier, but it will make them more humane, more inclusive, and truer to life. -- Anna Alexandrova, author of A Philosophy of Science for Well-BeingReading this book made me happy, but more importantly, I learned a great deal from it. This book is a tour de force: written in a lively, accessible manner; well argued; and empirically well-informed. It is the best available critique of the ideology of the ‘happiness agenda,’ which confuses subjective positive mental states and reported life satisfaction with what really matters. -- Allen Buchanan, author of Our Moral Fate: Evolution and the Escape from TribalismHumankind has been preoccupied with happiness since we invented philosophy. We try to cultivate happiness with pithy little sayings, like 'Happiness is a journey, not a destination' and 'Happiness is a state of mind.' We regulate happiness with religion. We judge the quality of a life by the amount of happiness achieved, and the success of a country by the average happiness of its citizens. And yet, no one can agree on exactly what happiness is or what it's worth. Against Happiness masterfully reveals that happiness is not a single experience, physical condition, or unified state of meaning. It's a population of instances that vary across situations and cultures (as are all other categories of emotion). And each instance blooms from unexamined assumptions and preconceptions that likewise vary by situation and culture. This book is a must-read for anyone who has felt happy, hungered for more happiness, or pondered the emotional lives of humans and how happiness matters to the quality of a life. -- Lisa Feldman Barrett, author of How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the BrainIf you are happy read this book. If you are not happy read this book. Either way you will learn about the complexity of the very idea and how it is widely sprinkled throughout our mental space while still remaining an elusive reality. -- Michael Gazzaniga, author of Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of MindThis book is an attempt at doing cross-cultural and thus real philosophy in that it is the love of the wisdom of all peoples, rather than that of the WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic) people. It is also an attempt at interdisciplinary works and thus grounded philosophy. While showing the relativity of happiness, it also insists on the universality of certain human goods, such as human rights and sustainable development goals. -- Bai Tongdong, author China: The Middle Way of the Middle KingdomAgainst Happiness moves beyond the one-dimensional and reductionist approaches that have hitherto limited our understanding of happiness to narrow aspects or have obliterated non-western, non-white, and marginalized experiences of well-being. The authors persuasively outline shortcomings of definitions of happiness across different disciplines and different cultural philosophical traditions, a crucial step for investigating more accurate, inclusive, and expansive definitions of happiness in the future. -- Liya Yu, author of Vulnerable Minds: The Neuropolitics of Divided SocietiesTable of ContentsPrefaceIntroductionPart I: Happiness Philosophy and Happiness Science1. Introduction: The Happiness Agenda2. Varieties of Theories and Measures of Well-Being and Happiness3. How Should We Think About the Emotion of Happiness Scientifically? Lessons from the Science of Fear4. Why Averaging Happiness Scores and Comparing Them Is a Terrible IdeaPart II: Culture and Happiness5. Positive and Negative Emotions: Culture, Content, and Context6. Happiness and Well-Being as Cultural Projects: Immigration, Biculturalism, Cultural Belonging7. Happiness and Well-Being in Contemporary ChinaPart III: Race, Racism, Resignation8. Happiness, Race, and Hermeneutical Justice: The Case of African American Mental Health9. Interpreting Self-Reports of Well-BeingPart IV: Conclusions10. Recommendations for Policy Use of Happiness Metrics11. Universal Rights, Sustainable Development, and Happiness: Two out of Three Ain’t BadPart V: Responses by Four Critics12. On Ersatz Happiness, by Jennifer A. Frey13. Why the Analysis and Assessment of Happiness Matters, by Hazel Rose Markus14. Three out of Three Is Better, by Jeffrey D. Sachs15. What the Gallup World Poll Could Do to Deepen Our Understanding of Happiness in Different Cultures, by Jeanne L. TsaiNotesReferencesIndex

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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 SynopsisCulture will keep you fit and healthy. Culture will bring communities together. Culture will improve your education. This is the message from governments and arts organisations across the country; however, this book explains why we need to be cautious about culture.Offering a powerful call to transform the cultural and creative industries, Culture is bad for you examines the intersections between race, class, and gender in the mechanisms of exclusion in cultural occupations. Exclusion from culture begins at an early age, the authors argue, and despite claims by cultural institutions and businesses to hire talented and hardworking individuals, women, people of colour, and those from working class backgrounds are systematically disbarred.While the inequalities that characterise both workforce and audience remain unaddressed, the positive contribution culture makes to society can never be fully realised.Trade Review'If you’ve ever felt on shaky ground describing your experience of inequality in the arts, if you’ve ever wondered if it’s really true that some people are excluded from participation in cultural production and representation, if you’d like something to wave in the face of naysayers who think the cream always rises to the top, this is it. Culture is bad for you. This book does more than it says on the tin.'Kit de Waal, author of My Name is Leon'The Janus-faced character of culture lies at the core of this wonderful new text. The big and diverse world of culture and entertainment brings joy, health, connection and catharsis to billions, but often at the expense of the talented few who labour to produce it. Culture is bad for you is a sweeping, empirical investigation of what it takes to “make it” as a British culture producer, but also of the forces that “break it”: unequal access for people with fewer resources. Essential reading for citizens, policy makers, employers, artists and fans – and for those who study them.'Jennifer C. Lena, Columbia University'As Raymond Williams long ago argued, culture is all around us, and it is ordinary. Brook, O'Brien and Taylor show us that ordinary culture is bad for us. It is bad for us as workers, as consumers, and as a society. This excellent book will be the go-to source on the extraordinary inequality in the creation and consumption of ordinary media for a long time to come.'Clayton Childress, University of Toronto Scarborough'Provocatively titled, carefully argued, and accessibly written, Culture is bad for you demolishes our cherished myths about culture. The vaunted cultural industries are not open or egalitarian. Culture has never been meritocratic, neither today nor in some mythical golden age. Culture excludes, pop culture as much as posh culture. An enlightening read for all producers and consumers of culture – that is: all of us.'Giselinde Kuipers, Catholic University Leuven, Belgium‘If we truly believe that culture is a force for good in our communities and our lives, we need to urgently address our own shortcomings when it comes to inequality around who gets to experience, and who gets to make, art in this country. The data and testimonies in this important book are just the ammunition we need.’ James Graham, playwright and screenwriter‘Vital reading for anyone working in culture and interested in equality – this book gives us the reasons to make change, the actions are up to us. Take action.’ Stella Duffy, Co-Director Fun Palaces‘Culture is bad for you is a sobering, enraging picture of the creative industries and the inequalities at their heart. Using data, case studies and sharp analysis, the result holds to account a culture that isn’t just a reflection of a rigged society – but an engine of it. For anyone who works in British culture, or cares who does, or simply values true equality of opportunity, this is essential reading.’ Danny Leigh, journalist for the Financial Times and the BBC 'There really is an arts emergency, the reality of the class crisis is shocking, but this book shows how we can do something right now to change things.' Josie Long, writer and stand-up comedian'Culture is Bad for You is a welcome and necessary addition to the literature on cultural production and consumption. In a period when there is growing interest in inequality in the creative sector and beyond, it provides both an accessible and comprehensive overview of what inequality looks like in cultural fields.'Patricia A. Banks, Journal of Cultural Economy'This is the most vital book in cultural affairs I have read in years.'Michael Rushton, The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society -- .Table of Contents1 Introduction2 Is culture good for you?3 Who works in culture?4 Who consumes culture?5 When does inequality begin in cultural workers’ lives?6 Is it still good work if you’re not getting paid?7 Was there a golden age?8 How is inequality experienced?9 Why don’t women run culture?10 What about the men?11 ConclusionIndex

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Book SynopsisHow much of our fate is tied to the status of our parents and grandparents? How much does it influence our children? More than we wish to believe. While it has been argued that rigid class structures have eroded in favor of greater social equality, The Son Also Rises proves that movement on the social ladder has changed little over eight centuries.Trade ReviewWinner of 2015 Gyorgy Ranki Prize, Economic History Association Honorable Mention for the 2015 PROSE Award in Economics, Association of American Publishers One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2014 One of Vox's "Best Books We Read in 2014" "The Son Also Rises ... suggests that dramatic social mobility has always been the exception rather than the rule. Clark examines a host of societies over the past seven hundred years and finds that the makeup of a given country's economic elite has remained surprisingly stable."--James Surowiecki, New Yorker "An epic feat of data crunching and collaborative grind... Mr. Clark has just disrupted our complacent idea of a socially mobile, democratically fluid society."--Trevor Butterworth, Wall Street Journal "Audacious."--Barbara Kiser, Nature "[A]n important book, and anybody at all interested in inequality and the kind of society we have should read it."--Diane Coyle, Enlightened Economist "The Son Also Rises... That is the new Greg Clark book and yes it is an event and yes you should buy it."--Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution "Startling... Clark proposes a new way to measure mobility across nations and over time. He tracks the persistence of rare surnames at different points on the socio-economic scale. The information he gathers is absorbing in its own right, quite aside from its implications."--Clive Crook, Bloomberg View "Clark casts his net wider. He looks at mobility not across one or two generations, but across many. And he shows by focusing on surnames--last names--how families overrepresented in elite institutions remain that way, though to diminishing degrees, not just for a few generations but over centuries."--Michael Barone, Washington Examiner "Deeply challenging."--Margaret Wente, Globe & Mail "Who should you marry if you want to win at the game of life? Gregory Clark ... offers some answers in his fascinating new book, The Son Also Rises."--Eric Kaufmann, Literary Review "This intriguing book measures social mobility in a novel way, by tracing unusual surnames over several generations in nine different countries, focusing on intergenerational changes in education, wealth, and social status as indicated by occupation."--Foreign Affairs "No doubt this book will be as controversial as its thesis is thought-provoking."--Library Journal "Gregory Clark's analysis of intergenerational mobility signals a marked shift in the way economists think about social mobility."--Andrew Leigh, Sydney Morning Herald "The thesis of The Son Also Rises is, fundamentally, that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Ingeniously, Clark and his team of researchers look at the persistence of socioeconomic status through the lens of surnames in more than 20 societies."--Tim Sullivan, Harvard Business Review "Clark has a predilection for investigating interesting questions, as well as for literary puns... [J]ust as Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century, calls into question the role of capitalism in wealth creation, Clark calls into question the role of capitalism in social mobility."--Theodore Kinni, Strategy+Business.com "Clark's book is not merely intellectually clever, it's profoundly challenging. Especially for Americans, it calls into question of ourselves as individuals, as well as our long-standing image of our society. Let's hope he's wrong."--Benjamin M. Friedman, The Atlantic "Adopting an innovative approach to using surnames to measure social mobility, The Son Also Rises engages the reader by presenting data that comes to life as it is anchored by names we see in our daily life... A book with valuable insights derived from a well-designed research, it is strongly recommended to all serious readers interested in building strong democracies, for high social mobility is at the heart of a vibrant democracy. Policy makers will gain the benefits of counter-intuitive conclusions that this book throws up with its multi-generational study. Academicians interested in social justice and social activists engaged in promoting social mobility too will have a lot to chew on."--BusinessWorld "Clark continues the project begun in his A Farewell to Alms. Here, he offers a controversial challenge to standard ideas that social mobility wipes out class advantages over a few generations... An important, challenging book."--Choice "[T]his is a well written and thought-provoking book... I look forward to his next book--and his next Hemingway pun!"--Edward Dutton, Quarterly Review "Clark's book begins a fascinating and important conversation about social mobility... Clark's findings are important to engage with, and they will factor into discussions about social mobility for years to come."--Laura Salisbury, EH.Net "[I]t's one of those rare, invigorating arguments which, if correct, totally upends your understanding of the way the world works. Right or wrong, I've thought about it more than anything else I read in 2014."--Dylan Matthews, a Vox "Best Books We Read in 2014" selection "[A] provocative book."--Richard Lampard, European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology "The Son Also Rises makes for stimulating reading, and I recommend it."--Chris Minns, Investigaciones de Historia EconomicaTable of ContentsPreface ix 1 Introduction: Of Ruling Classes and Underclasses: The Laws of Social Mobility 1 PART I Social Mobility by Time and Place 2 Sweden: Mobility Achieved? 19 3 The United States: Land of Opportunity 45 4 Medieval England: Mobility in the Feudal Age 70 5 Modern England: The Deep Roots of the Present 88 6 A Law of Social Mobility 107 7 Nature versus Nurture 126 PART II Testing the Laws of Mobility 8 India: Caste, Endogamy, and Mobility 143 9 China and Taiwan: Mobility after Mao 167 10 Japan and Korea: Social Homogeneity and Mobility 182 11 Chile: Mobility among the Oligarchs 199 12 The Law of Social Mobility and Family Dynamics 212 13 Protestants, Jews, Gypsies, Muslims, and Copts: Exceptions to the Law of Mobility? 228 14 Mobility Anomalies 253 PART III The Good Society 15 Is Mobility Too Low? Mobility versus Inequality 261 16 Escaping Downward Social Mobility 279 Appendix 1: Measuring Social Mobility 287 Appendix 2: Deriving Mobility Rates from Surname Frequencies 296 Appendix 3: Discovering the Status of Your Surname Lineage 301 Data Sources for Figures and Tables 319 References 333 Index 349

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Book SynopsisNow a Major FilmYou pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone forever.'Anne Elliot is persuaded to reject a marriage proposal from handsome Captain Wentworth because he lacks rank or fortune. But when he returns home from the Navy, more than seven years later, Anne realises she still has strong feelings for him, despite the fact that his attentions have now turned towards her friend.Moving, tender and intrinsically Austen' in style, with its satirical portrayal of society in eighteenth-century England, Persuasion is a story of heartache and missed opportunities, and a celebration of enduring love and hope.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“This is an emotional and passionate book, raw in its grief and anger, but also imbued with hope for redemption. Based on objective his­torical fact and subjective experience, Of Greed and Glory has the power of a sermon and the urgency of a manifesto.” — Deborah Mason, BookPage "As indispensable to understanding the Americas as Edward E. Baptist’s The Half Has Never Been Told. Of Greed and Glory powerfully demonstrates that though we as Black Americans are far from faultless in some of our most egregious behavior on the mean plantations and streets of antebellum and modern America, we nonetheless have had to grow our dignity beneath the pitiless boot of those who looked into the tiny faces of our infants and saw only dollar signs. Powerful and necessary." — Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and National Book Award winning author of The Color Purple and Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart “If you want to understand the current issues surrounding race, social justice, and inequality, you have to read Deborah Plant’s book, Of Greed and Glory. Deborah understands that the issues surrounding race, unfolding before us now in America, are deeply rooted in the legacy of the African American past. She writes eloquently and beautifully about that past. Of Greed and Glory is a must-read book for socially conscious citizens.” — Clyde W. Ford, Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award in African American fiction—winning author of Of Blood and Sweat and Think Black "Of Greed and Glory is impossible to put down. It’s a searing, provocative analysis of how the roots of slavery in the US still infiltrate so many of our social institutions. Plant’s vivid prose will leave you affected, challenged, and thinking about this book long after you’re done reading." — Adia Wingfield, author of Gray Areas, Flatlining, and No More Invisible Man "Deborah G. Plant courageously and painstakingly provides insight into the devastation and trauma experienced generations of African Americans, persons of color, and the poor … This is a must read that challenges us to become active in the movement to abolish slavery, patriarchy, and other forms of oppression that exist in our nation." — Diane D. Turner, author of Feeding the Soul and curator of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection, Temple University Libraries

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Book SynopsisA Recommended Read from: Vogue * USA Today * The Los Angeles Times * Publishers Weekly * The Week * Alma * Lit HubA stunning and brutally honest memoir that shines a light on what happens when female desire conflicts with a culture of masculinity in crisisIn her midthirties and newly free from a terrible relationship, Tabitha Lasley quit her job at a London magazine, packed her bags, and poured her savings into a six-month lease on an apartment in Aberdeen, Scotland. She decided to make good on a long-deferred idea for a book about oil rigs and the men who work on them. Why oil rigs? She wanted to see what men were like with no women around.In Aberdeen, Tabitha became deeply entrenched in the world of roughnecks, a teeming subculture rich with brawls, hard labor, and competition. The longer she stayed, the more she found her presence had a destabilizing effect on the men—and her.Sea State is on the one hand a portrait of an overlooked industry: “offshore” is a way of life for generations of primarily working-class men and also a potent metaphor for those parts of life we keep at bay—class, masculinity, the transactions of desire, and the awful slipperiness of a ladder that could, if we tried hard enough, lead us to security.Sea State is on the other hand the story of a journalist whose professional distance from her subject becomes perilously thin. In Aberdeen, Tabitha gets high and dances with abandon, reliving her youth, when the music was good and the boys were bad. Twenty years on, there is Caden: a married rig worker who spends three weeks on and three weeks off. Alone and in an increasingly precarious state, Tabitha dives into their growing attraction. The relationship, reckless and explosive, will lay them both bare.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“an essential reckoning with the roots of the racial wealth gap in America.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A compelling argument for long-overdue reparations—though much more than that alone.” — Kirkus Reviews “Ford’s forceful arguments and writing will compel readers to face the facts of the long history of exploitation and appropriation that have defined so much of America’s struggle with itself to give substance and meaning to its promise of 'freedom' for all.” — Library Journal (starred review) “Ford makes a clear case that the past is never over. The wounds inflicted by slavery have never healed, and he argues that they will continue to harm our country until we deal with them honestly. For many Americans, reading Of Blood and Sweat will be an excellent first step in that process.” — BookPage

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Book SynopsisThis classic of economic thought is a scathing critique of American snobbery and wastefulness. Chief among the practices that Veblen so wittily satirizes is conspicuous consumption, a pattern of behaviour that still flourishes among us.Table of ContentsThe Theory of the Leisure Class - Thorstein Veblen Introduction by Robert LekachmanPrefaceChapter I: IntroductoryChapter II: Pecuniary EmulationChapter III: Conspicuous LeisureChapter IV: Conspicuous ConsumptionChapter V: The Pecuniary Standards of LivingChapter VI: Pecuniary Canons of TasteChapter VII: Dress as an Expression of the Pecuniary CultureChapter VIII: Industrial Exemption and ConservatismChapter IX: The Conservation of Archaic TraitsChapter X: Modern Survivals of ProwessChapter XI: The Belief in LuckChapter XII: Devout ObservancesChapter XIII: Survivals of the Non-Invidious InterestChapter XIV: The Higher Learning as an Expression of the Pecuniary Culture

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Book SynopsisWritten when Engels was only twenty-four, and inspired in particular by his time living among the poor in Manchester, this forceful polemic explores the staggering human cost of the Industrial Revolution in Victorian England. Engels paints an unforgettable picture of daily life in the new industrial towns, and for miners and agricultural workers—depicting overcrowded housing, abject poverty, child labour, sexual exploitation, dirt and drunkenness—in a savage indictment of the greed of the bourgeoisie. His fascinating later preface, written for the first English edition of 1892 and included here, brought the story up to date in the light of forty years’ further reflection. A masterpiece of committed reporting and an impassioned call to arms, this is one of the great pioneering works of social history.   Based on the original translation by Florence Wischnewetzky, this volume is edited by Victor Kiernan, whose foreword considers Engels’s friendship with Marx, and the book’s position as a seminal work of socialism. Also included are notes, a detailed index, new chronology and further reading and a revised forward.  

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Book SynopsisChrystia Freeland is the managing editor and director of consumer news at Thompson Reuters, following years of service at the Financial Times both in New York and London. She was the deputy editor of Canada's The Globe and Mail and has reported for the Financial Times, The Economist, and The Washington Post. Freeland is also the author of Sale of a Century: The Inside Story of the Second Russian Revolution. She lives in New York City.blogs.reuters.com/chrystia-freeland@cafreeland

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Book SynopsisA searing account of George Orwell''s observations of working-class life in the bleak industrial heartlands of Yorkshire and Lancashire in the 1930s, The Road to Wigan Pier is a brilliant and bitter polemic that has lost none of its political impact over time. His graphically unforgettable descriptions of social injustice, cramped slum housing, dangerous mining conditions, squalor, hunger and growing unemployment are written with unblinking honesty, fury and great humanity. It crystallized the ideas that would be found in Orwell''s later works and novels, and remains a powerful portrait of poverty, injustice and class divisions in Britain.Published with an introduction by Richard Hoggart in Penguin Modern Classics.''It is easy to see why the book created and still creates so sharp an impact ... exceptional immediacy, freshness and vigour, opinionated and bold ... Above all, it is a study of poverty and, behind that, of the strength of class-divisTrade ReviewTrue genius ... all his anger and frustration found their first proper means of expression in Wigan Pier -- Peter Ackroyd * The Times *

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Book SynopsisThe essential new book from the authors of the international bestseller The Spirit Level''Why are people, particularly young people, experiencing increasing levels of mental illness and distress? Highly readable and authoritative, The Inner Level shows clearly how social anxieties and the problems they lead to rise steadily in richer, more unequal societies'' Clare Short, The Tablet, Books of the YearWhy is the incidence of mental illness in the UK twice that in Germany? Why are Americans three times more likely than the Dutch to develop gambling problems? Why is child well-being so much worse in New Zealand than Japan? As this groundbreaking study demonstrates, the answer to all these hinges on inequality.In The Spirit Level Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett put inequality at the centre of public debateby showing conclusively that less-equal societies fare worse than more equal ones across everythingfrom educatioTrade ReviewThe question of inequality is likely to play a bigger role in the next election than it has for more than a generation. It would be better for all of us if that debate was informed by robust statistical analysis rather than the emotive politics of envy. Any politician wishing to do so would be wise to read Wilkinson and Pickett's books. -- Andrew Anthony * Observer *It holds the reader's attention by elaborating a phenomenon most will already have observed, and by providing an explanation for the dysfunction they see around them, from the brazen disregard for rules among many corporate and political leaders to the nihilism of drug addicts and school-shooters * Economist *

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Book SynopsisFifty years since first publication, E. P. Thompson''s revolutionary account of working-class culture and ideals is published in Penguin Modern Classics, with a new introduction by historian Michael KennyThis classic and imaginative account of working-class society in its formative years, 1780 to 1832, revolutionized our understanding of English social history. E. P. Thompson shows how the working class took part in its own making and re-creates the whole-life experience of people who suffered loss of status and freedom, who underwent degradation, and who yet created a cultured and political consciousness of great vitality.Reviews:''A dazzling vindication of the lives and aspirations of the then - and now once again - neglected culture of working-class England'' Martin Kettle, Observer''Superbly readable . . . a moving account of the culture of the self-taught in an age of social and intellectual deprivation'' Asa Briggs, Financial Times''Thompson''s work combines passion and intellect, the gifts of the poet, the narrator and the analyst'' E. J. Hobsbawm, Independent''An event not merely in the writing of English history but in the politics of our century'' Michael Foot, Times Literary Supplement''The greatest of our socialist historians'' Terry Eagleton, New StatesmanAbout the author:E. P. Thompson was born in 1924 and read history at Corpus Christi, Cambridge, graduating in 1946. An academic, writer and acclaimed historian, his first major work was a biography of William Morris. The Making of the English Working Class was instantly recognized as a classic on its publication in 1963 and secured his position as one of the leading social historians of his time. Thompson was also an active campaigner and key figure in the ending of the Cold War. He died in 1993, survived by his wife and two sons.Trade ReviewThompson's work combines passion and intellect, the gifts of the poet, the narrator and the analyst -- Eric Hobsbawm * Independent *A dazzling vindication of the lives and aspirations of the then - and now once again - neglected culture of working-class England -- Martin Kettle * Observer *Superbly readable . . . a moving account of the culture of the self-taught in an age of social and intellectual deprivation -- Asa Briggs * Financial Times *An event not merely in the writing of English history but in the politics of our century -- Michael Foot * Times Literary Supplement *The greatest of our socialist historians -- Terry Eagleton * New Statesman *

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Book Synopsis''A deeply intelligent and searching book, one that makes you re-consider the narrative of your own life and reframe the story you tell yourself'' Hilary MantelA Guardian reader''s Best Book of 2018 There was a question that had come to trouble me a bit earlier, once I had taken the first steps on this return journey to Reims... Why, when I have had such an intense experience of forms of shame related to class ... why had it never occurred to me to take up this problem in a book?Returning to Reims is a breathtaking account of one man''s return to the town where he grew up after an absence of thirty years. It is a frank, fearlessly personal story of family, memory, identity and time lost. But it is also a sociologist''s view of what itmeans to grow up working class and then leave that class; of inequality and shifting political allegiances in an increasingly divided nation. A phenomenon in France and a huge bestseller in Germany, Didier Eribon has written the defining memoir of our times.''I was overwhelmed by this book. I felt I was reading the story of my life'' Edouard Louis, author of The End of Eddy''A book about self-invention and belonging'' Colm ToibinTrade ReviewA brilliant little book...a touching memoir of sexual awakening, and a gallery of philosophical ideas and characters -- Steven Poole * The Observer *A deeply intelligent and searching book, one that makes you re-consider the narrative of your own life and reframe the story you tell yourself... Didier Eribon understands how deep the roots of inequality go -- Hilary MantelReturning to Reims played a capital role in my life... I was overwhelmed by this book. I felt I was reading the story of my life. -- Edouard LouisThis is a self-excoriating memoir... [Eribon] writes as someone who has scrubbed hard at the markings of destiny -- Marina Benjamin * New Statesman *A stunning book -- vital and important -- Andrew McMillanHypnotic ... a gripping read * Daily Telegraph *Eribon's memoir is fascinating: full of fretful honesty, battling with shame around his background and shame at being ashamed -- The TimesEribon offers up a magnificent example of an enlightened life liberated by theory, written in a style that deftly moves between the intimate, the social and the political -- Annie ErnauxA powerful book and one that I enjoyed immensely -- Geoffrey Beattie * Irish Times *This is a beautiful book about suppression, losing touch with your roots, and regaining balance * Art in America *An honest and moving personal narrative that is skilfully threaded through sociological and political analysis. I was captivated from beginning to end -- Diane Reay * author of Miseducation: Inequality, Education and the Working Classes *This intensely personal account of Didier Eribon's family is a fascinating and compelling read...The book is beautifully written (and as beautifully translated). It is at once pleasureable and edifying to read * Joan W. Scott *Retour à Reims could be a novel. It has all the allure and attraction of one -- Claire Devarrieux * Libération *[a] particular favourite... thinks in this space with nuance and style -- Joanna Lee * White Review BOOKS OF THE YEAR *

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Book SynopsisTrade Reviewsuperb ... Wooldridge, the political editor of The Economist, quite brilliantly evokes the values and manners of the pluto-meritocrats at the top of society ... They would do well to read Wooldridge's erudite, thoughtful and magnificently entertaining book. They will find many uncomfortable truths in it. -- James Marriott * The Times *Adrian Wooldridge's extraordinary and irresistible history of meritocracy, The Aristocracy of Talent, describes the repeated efforts over the centuries to persuade peoples all over the world to accept the principle and compel society to organize itself on lines where merit alone, not bloodlines or bank balances, decides who rules and gets top dollar. ... Throughout, Wooldridge never loses faith in the principle of meritocracy as the key driver of modernity ... The Aristocracy of Talent is a serious treat from first to last. Not the least of its pleasures are the possibilities of disagreement that it provokes. -- Ferdinand Mount * Times Literary Supplement *This is a blistering and provocative defence of meritocracy - the single word almost all democratic politicians swear by, but never debate. Wooldridge, the Economist's political editor, provides an erudite survey of many cultures over several centuries to remind us how meritocracy's core idea - that your place in society should be a reflect of talent and effort, not determined by birth - is both revolutionary and recent. He sees meritocracy as an organising ideal rather than something that has been satisfactorily achieved, and rails against the ability of the privileged to purchase educational advantage for their children. He deplores too, outbursts of arrogance from meritocracy's winners. -- Books of the Year * New Statesman *The Aristocracy of Talent is finely constructed: fluent insights include the importance of Plato's distrust of democracy, on the grounds that it tended to lead to tyranny, and his insistence on the need for a leadership of experts. -- John Lloyd * Financial Times *In The Aristocracy of Talent, the Economist writer Adrian Wooldridge defends the meritocratic ideal. The book offers a sweeping account of the history of meritocracy, from the elaborate exams required to join the Chinese civil service to the problems with our dysfunctional present version of meritocracy, which Wooldridge says might be better called "pluto-meritocracy". Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand one of the important problems facing rich nations. -- James Marriott * The Times Book of the Year *This masterly book offers a robust defence of meritocracy. -- Lord Willetts * Economist *hugely stimulating ... a spirited defence ... of meritocracy itself, made with cogent arguments ... a valuable, thought-provoking book -- Noel Malcolm * Daily Telegraph *a timely book that is a reminder that meritocracy, for all its flaws, may well be, like the democracy it has sometimes served, better than the alternatives ... told with a wealth of erudition in brisk and readable prose -- Darrin M McMahon * Literary Review *There are few terms whose origins are more misunderstood than "meritocracy". So Adrian Wooldridge has performed a public service with his latest book, The Aristocracy of Talent. -- Dominic Lawson * Sunday Times *Adrian Wooldridge sees meritocracy as a revolutionary idea worth improving, not abandoning. He ranges across two and a half thousand years of history, surveying many societies and cultures, to remind us that until relatively recently the talented were almost always a matter of no interest to the rulers - not only unrewarded but undiscovered ... [a] rich stew of a book. Alongside the philosophers are innumerable politicians, theologians, scientists, academics, authors and campaigners. He has dug up a priceless array of quotes from all perspectives on how to define the best people, how to seek them out, how to educate them, how to test them, how to give them power, even how they should behave. -- Mark Damazer * New Statesman *In this elegant historical and philosophical defence of the notion that people should advance according to talent rather than birth, Wooldridge argues that the idea that ruled the world by the late 20th century has become corrupted. This "golden ticket to prosperity" needs restoring in order to revive social mobility. -- Andrew Hill * Financial Times * an omniscient and impassioned polemic ... Some of us have been waiting a long time for someone to do what Wooldridge has done: nail the lie that there is something shameful about success honestly earned -- Daniel Johnson * The Critic *The Aristocracy of Talent is both an exhaustively researched history of an idea and a many-sided examination of the impacts of its imperfect execution. -- Mike Jakeman * Strategy + Business *A worthy successor to the 1958 classic The Rise of the Meritocracy, this sparkling study shows how much less meritocratic our society has become since then -- Vernon Bogdanor * Daily Telegraph Books of the Year *Wooldridge has written one of the great books of the decade. Here, meticulously researched and in arresting prose, are definitive accounts of Plato's authoritarian philosophy and the way later generations interpreted it, of China's mandarinate, of the rise of IQ tests and much else. -- Lord Hannan * Conservative Home *with its remorseless erudition ... in his new book, Adrian Wooldridge tries to salvage meritocracy from the ossified over-class that Aldous Huxley foresaw. -- Janan Ganesh * Financial Times *Adrian Wooldridge relabels the system "pluto-meritocracy" to expose its sham ideology -- Philip Aldrick * The Times *readable and wide-ranging...Wooldridge maintains that meritocracy is revolutionary and egalitarian -- Peter Mandler * BBC History Magazine *Every page, there's an intriguing nugget of information. -- Robbie Millenkudos to Adrian Wooldridge... for producing a full-throated defence of the principle -- Toby Young * Spectator *An elegant defence of talent. * The Week *

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

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Book SynopsisFrom the New York Times-bestselling author of The Secret Rooms, the extraordinary true story of the downfall of one of England’s wealthiest familiesFans of Downton Abbey now have a go-to resource for fascinating, real-life stories of the spectacular lives led by England’s aristocrats. With the novelistic flair and knack for historical detail Catherine Bailey displayed in her New York Times bestseller The Secret Rooms, Black Diamonds provides a page-turning chronicle of the Fitzwilliam coal-mining dynasty and their breathtaking Wentworth estate, the largest private home in England.When the sixth Earl Fitzwilliam died in 1902, he left behind the second largest estate in twentieth-century England, valued at more than £3 billion of today’s money—a lifeline to the tens of thousands of people who worked either in the family’s coal mines or on their expansive estate. The earl also left behind f

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Book SynopsisA persuasive and highly readable account. —President Barack Obama“Brilliant. . . . an important, fascinating read arguing that inequality creates a public health crisis in America.” —Nicholas Kristof, New York Times“The Broken Ladder is an important, timely, and beautifully written account of how inequality affects us all.” —Adam Alter, New York Times bestselling author of Irresistible and Drunk Tank PinkA timely examination by a leading scientist of the physical, psychological, and moral effects of inequality. The levels of inequality in the world today are on a scale that have not been seen in our lifetimes, yet the disparity between rich and poor has ramifications that extend far beyond mere financial means. In The Broken Ladder psychologist Keith Payne examines how inequality divides us not just economically; it also has profound consequences for how we think, how we respond to stress, how our immune systems function, and even how we view moral concepts such as justice and fairness.Research in psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics has not only revealed important new insights into how inequality changes people in predictable ways but also provided a corrective to the flawed view of poverty as being the result of individual character failings. Among modern developed societies, inequality is not primarily a matter of the actual amount of money people have. It is, rather, people's sense of where they stand in relation to others. Feeling poor matters—not just being poor. Regardless of their average incomes, countries or states with greater levels of income inequality have much higher rates of all the social maladies we associate with poverty, including lower than average life expectancies, serious health problems, mental illness, and crime. The Broken Ladder explores such issues as why women in poor societies often have more children, and why they have them at a younger age; why there is little trust among the working class in the prudence of investing for the future; why people's perception of their social status affects their political beliefs and leads to greater political divisions; how poverty raises stress levels as effectively as actual physical threats; how inequality in the workplace affects performance; and why unequal societies tend to become more religious. Understanding how inequality shapes our world can help us better understand what drives ideological divides, why high inequality makes the middle class feel left behind, and how to disconnect from the endless treadmill of social comparison.

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Book SynopsisImpeccably researched and skillfully articulated, Silva''s work is a timely primer on the current state of blue-collar Millennials. --Publishers Weekly[A] brief yet devastating book that blends academic analysis and oral history to put a new face on well-documented trends that are more usually described in the abstract. --Boston GlobeSilva has made a major contribution to understanding where young adults are coming from, what influences them, and what they consider to be common sense. --The American ConservativeFascinating --Feministing.com[A]n enjoyable read and raises important issues that we generally overlook. --Washington Independent Review of BooksComing Up Short is a brief, but powerful, update of the status, difficulties, behaviors and distresses that characterize the lives of young working class adults.... highly recommended for sociologists and social welfare students and academics alike. It informs in telling detail the difficult circumstances and self-perceptions of a significant portion of the American population. It is also a window into how the ''helping professions'' have influenced the thinking of young adults and suggests that those professions need to help their clients see their troubles in broader terms than they apparently currently do. --Journal of Sociology & Social WelfareWhat does it mean to grow up today as working-class young adults? How does the economic and social instability left in the wake of neoliberalism shape their identities, their understandings of the American Dream, and their futures?Coming Up Short illuminates the transition to adulthood for working-class men and women. Moving away from easy labels such as the Peter Pan generation, Jennifer Silva reveals the far bleaker picture of how the erosion of traditional markers of adulthood-marriage, a steady job, a house of one''s own-has changed what it means to grow up as part of the post-industrial working class. Based on one hundred interviews with working-class people in two towns-Lowell, Massachusetts, and Richmond, Virginia-Silva sheds light on their experience of heightened economic insecurity, deepening inequality, and uncertainty about marriage and family. Silva argues that, for these men and women, coming of age means coming to terms with the absence of choice. As possibilities and hope contract, moving into adulthood has been re-defined as a process of personal struggle-an adult is no longer someone with a small home and a reliable car, but someone who has faced and overcome personal demons to reconstruct a transformed self. Indeed, rather than turn to politics to restore the traditional working class, this generation builds meaning and dignity through the struggle to exorcise the demons of familial abuse, mental health problems, addiction, or betrayal in past relationships. This dramatic and largely unnoticed shift reduces becoming an adult to solitary suffering, self-blame, and an endless seeking for signs of progress. This powerfully written book focuses on those who are most vulnerable-young, working-class people, including African-Americans, women, and single parents-and reveals what, in very real terms, the demise of the social safety net means to their fragile hold on the American Dream.Trade ReviewImpeccably researched and skillfully articulated, Silva's work is a timely primer on the current state of blue-collar Millennials. * Publishers Weekly *Table of Contents1. Coming of Age in a Risk Society ; 2. Prisoners of the Present ; 3. Insecure Intimacies ; 4. Hardened Selves ; 5. Coming of Age in the "Mood Economy" ; Conclusion: The Hidden Injuries of Risk ; Notes ; References ; Index

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Book SynopsisFrom Reconstruction to Lyndon Johnson and beyond, Jill Quadagno reveals how American social policy has continuously foundered on issues of race. She draws on extensive primary research to show how social programmes became entwined with the civil rights movement and subsequently suffered by association at the hands of a white backlash.Trade Review"Important....A major contribution."--Frances Fox Piven, co-author of Why Americans Don't Vote and Regulating the Poor "A sweeping and detailed account of the U.S. health insurance system's development during the 20th century. ...One Nation Uninsured is a clearly written, informative book that would be of interest to academics studying health care, politics, policy or U.S. history, and members of the lay public who want a better understanding of why the United States does not have universal health insurance. It would also be accessible to students, particularly those in advanced undergraduate courses or graduate seminars."--Social Forces "Outstanding and thought provoking."--Free Press "What distinguishes Quadagno's depiction is its forceful interjection of racial issues into the heart of welfare policy analysis. The result is a suggestive and informative reconsideration....Written in limpid, unpretentious prose, The Color of Welfare contains numerous gems of policy analysis."--American Journal of Sociology "What distinguishes Quadagno's depiction is its forceful interjection of racial issues into the heart of welfare policy analysis. The result is a suggestive and informative reconsideration....Written in limpid, unpretentious prose, The Color of Welfare contains numerous gems of policy analysis (including fresh treatments of employment, housing, and day care policy and, best of all, of President Mixon's ill-fated Family Assistance Plan [FAP])."--American Journal of Sociology "Quadagno demonstrates convincingly that race, class, and gender are essential analytical categories for those who hope to understand the nation's past and to design public hope to understand the nation's past and to design public policies for its future. [A] timely, well-researched study."--Booklist "This important book provides a lucid and perceptive analysis of the War on Poverty and the turbulent race politics which surrounded and ultimately engulfed it. More than that, by placing racial inequality at the very center of her analysis, Jill Quadagno makes a major contribution to our understanding of the distinctive development of the American welfare state."--Frances Fox Piven, co-author of Why Americans Don't Vote and Regulating the Poor "A leading authority on the American welfare state, Jill Quadagno makes a compelling case for her thesis that racism has done more than any other fact to limit generous and dignified public social provision in the United States. Scholars, students, and policy-makers all have much to learn from this important book."--Theda Skocpol, author of Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States "A telling analysis of race as the key faultline of American social policy."--Joel Blau, author of The Visible Poor: Homelessness in the U.S. "The graceful prose of Jill Quadagno's new book conceals a hard-hitting argument about the critical importance of racism in shaping the American welfare state. Based on exhaustive research in primary sources, she tells a story which has not been told before. Even child care programs, not to mention family assistance, job training, and housing programs have been decisively shaped by the politics of race. Theoretically, her argument challenges the claim that America's 'liberal values' have been a main barrier to the expansion of the American welfare state."--Robert R. Alford, author of Health Care Politics "A sweeping and detailed account of the U.S. health insurance system's development during the 20th century. ...One Nation Uninsured is a clearly written, informative book that would be of interest to academics studying health care, politics, policy or U.S. history, and members of the lay public who want a better understanding of why the United States does not have universal health insurance. It would also be accessible to students, particularly those in advanced undergraduate courses or graduate seminars."--Social Forces

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Book SynopsisSince its publication in 1984, Chants Democratic has endured as a classic narrative on labor and the rise of American democracy. In it, Sean Wilentz explores the dramatic social and intellectual changes that accompanied early industrialization in New York. He provides a panoramic chronicle of New York City''s labor strife, social movements, and political turmoil in the eras of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. Twenty years after its initial publication, Wilentz has added a new preface that takes stock of his own thinking, then and now, about New York City and the rise of the American working class.Trade Review"Certainly the best book yet written about the emergence of New York City's working class and a major contribution to American working-class history."--The New Republic"[Chants Democratic] is nothing less than a scholarly epic...it has no equal in breadth of subject, grace of style or acuity of interpretation."--The Nation"A great leap forward in both American social and American political history....Wilentz has written the statement on Jacksonian New York."--Journal of American History"Chants Democratic is a remarkable book that will quickly establish itself in the historiography and exert a powerful influence on the future direction of social, labor, and political history."--Journal of Interdisciplinary History"Gives the student of the Jacksonian Era an insider's look at the developing labor system of the northern industrialization process. In my 'Voices of the Union' course I use Chants to contrast the young republic's divergent and conflicting concepts of the Union, including its ideologic, economic, political, religious, and historical identities."--Wayne Cutler, University of Tennessee"A brilliant book."--U. Scharff, University of New Mexico"Wilentz's Chants Democratic gives the student of the JACKSONIAN ERA an insider's look at the developing labor system of the northern industrialization process. In my "Voices of Union" course, I use hants to contrast the young Republic's divergent and conflicting concepts of the Union, inclusing its ieologic, economic, political, religious, and historical identities."--Professor Wayne Cutler, University of Tennessee

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Book SynopsisMagraw examines how the 19-century French bourgeoisie struggled and succeeded in consolidating the gains it made in 1789. Incorporating research on religion and anticlericalism, the devolopment of the economy, the role of women in society and the educational system, he defends the view that the French revolution was indeed a "bourgeois revolution".Trade Review"A fine, thoughtful, and intellectually courageous book--bold in its interpretations and measured in its assessments."--Jane Clement Bond, Baruch College, City University of New York"Magraw writes in a compact, clear style."--History: Review of New Books"A successful synthesis of the historical literature that has emerged in the last 20 years."--Raymond Jonas, University of Washington

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Book SynopsisIn his controversial 1973 book, Is God a White Racist?, William R. Jones sharply criticized black theologians for their agnostic approach to black suffering, noting that the doctrine of an ominibenevolent God poses very significant problems for a perennially oppressed community. He proposed a humanocentric theism which denies God''s sovereignty over human history and imputes autonomous agency to humans. By rendering humans alone responsible for moral evil, Jones''s theology freed blacks to revolt against the evil of oppression without revolting against God. Sherman Jackson now places Jones''s argument in conversation with the classical schools of Islamic theology. The problem confronting the black community is not simply proving that God exists, says Jackson. The problem, rather, is establishing that God cares. No religious expression that fails to tackle the problem of black suffering can hope to enjoy a durable tenure in the black community. For the Muslim, therefore, it is essentialTrade ReviewJackson's work has added a thought-provoking response by Islamic studies and is long overdue in the debate of Black theodicy. * Black Diaspora Review *It goes without saying that any theological discussion is bound to be academic, yet this is an excellent book and a fascinating read. * ARNet *Jackson's book is a work of theology, and in this dimension it is a skillfully argued plea for Islam as a religion capable of meeting the challenge of black suffering as well as a clear explication of Islamic theodicy. It remarkably succeeds in both the academic register and as a sustained personal plea. * The Azanian Sea *Jackson is a welcome addition to the writings of American Islamic scholars, most of whom are non-idigenous Muslims; such thinkers are not qualified to write from an Islamic-centric perspective about the numourous social, political, and economical ills that plague Muslim African Americans. * Yusef Sala, BEACON *Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering warrants high praise for it's scholarship and deserves the attention of Islamic jurists, imams, religious scholars, and coverts. * Latif A. Tarik, Aerican Public University *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; William R. Jones and Challenge of Black Theodicy ; The Perduring Problem of Blackness: Beyond Ontological Suffering ; Chapter One: The Formative Development of Classical Muslim Theology ; The Arabians and Atheological "Peripheral Vision" ; Muhammad b. Idris al-Shafi'i and the Arabian Versus Arab Regime of Sense ; Traditionalism and Rationalism: The Rhetoric of Transcendence and the False Detente ; Chapter Two: Mu'tazilism and Black Theodicy ; Early Development and Basic Contours of Mu'tazilite Theology ; Relevant Details of Mu'tazilite Theology ; Mu'tazilism and Jones ; Chapter Three: Ash'arism and Black Theodicy ; Early Development and Basic Contours of Ash'arite Theology ; Relevant Details of Ash'arite Theology ; Ash'arism and Jones ; Chapter Four: Maturidism and Black Theodicy ; Early Development and Basic Contours of Maturidite Theology ; Relevant Details of Maturidite Theology ; Maturidism and Jones ; Chapter Five: Traditionalism and Black Theodicy ; Early Development and Basic Contours of Traditionalism ; Relevant Details of Tradtionalist Theology ; Traditionalism and Jones ; Conclusion ; Notes ; Bibliography

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Book SynopsisElites have a disproportionate impact on development outcomes. While a country''s endowments constitute the deep determinates of growth, the trajectory they follow is shaped by the actions of elites. But what factors affect whether elites use their influence for individual gain or national welfare? To what extent do they see poverty as a problem? And are their actions today constrained by institutions and norms established in the past? This volume looks at case studies from South Africa to China to seek a better understanding of the dynamics behind how elites decide to engage with economic development. Approaches include economic modelling, social surveys, theoretical analysis, and program evaluation. These different methods explore the relationship between elites and development outcomes from five angles: the participation and reaction of elites to institutional creation and change, how economic changes affect elite formation and circulation, elite perceptions of national welfare, theTable of ContentsPART I: THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS ; PART II: THE FORMATION AND CIRCULATION OF ELITES ; PART III: THE PREFERENCES OF ELITES ; PART IV: ELITES AND STATE CAPACTIY ; PART V: GRASSROOTS RESPONSES TO ELITES

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Book SynopsisThe first ever global history of luxury, from Roman villas to Russian oligarchs: a sparkling story of novelty, excess, extravagance, and indulgence through the centuriesTrade ReviewThere's a tension at the core of the very idea of luxury, and that tension gives this book its sinew. * The Wall Street Journal *Table of Contents1. Luxury, Antiquity, and the Antique ; 2. The Courts, the Church, and Medieval and Renaissance Luxury ; 3. Luxury and the Orient ; 4. Housing Luxury: From the Hotel Particulier to the Penthouses ; 5. Luxury and the Fashionable Body ; 6. Jet Set Life: From Trans-Atlantic to Global Elites ; 7. The Chic of Poverty: The Minimalism of Luxury ; 8. Everything that Money Can Buy? Manipulating Luxury ; 9. Has Luxury Lost its Lustre? ; Further Reading ; Notes ; Index

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Book SynopsisSocial Inequality â examining our present while understanding our past. Social Inequality and Social Statification in US Society, 1st edition uses a historical and conceptual framework to explain social stratification and social inequality. The historical scope gives context to each issue discussed and allows the reader to understand how each topic has evolved over the course of American history. The authors use qualitative data to help explain socioeconomic issues and connect related topics. Each chapter examines major concepts, so readers can see how an individualâs success in stratified settings often relies heavily on their access to valued resourcesâtypes of capital which involve finances, schooling, social networking, and cultural competence. Analyzing the impact of capital types throughout the text helps map out the prospects for individuals, families, and also classes to maintain or alter their position in social-stratification systems.Learning Goals<Trade ReviewThrough a historically grounded conceptual framework that explains the presence and reproduction of social stratification and social inequality, [Social Inequality and Social Stratification in US Society] analyzes the four major American classes (upper class, middle class, working class, and the poor), identifies the major historical events that have influenced contemporary social inequality, and supplements the quantitative overview of rates and trends with rich, qualitative sources that reveal how the American dream of socioeconomic uplift is really an American nightmare. Doob pays careful attention to how American capitalism functions as a system of class and caste, with special attention to status groups, occupational mobility, income and wealth, and many other elements that facilitate stratification and limit life chances. Unlike many other textbooks on the market, which attempt a faux ‘‘fair and balanced’’ overview of various ‘‘theories’’ of stratification that attempt to explain away inequality as an unfortunate by-product of the liberal state or as a problem only of irrational, microlevel discrimination, Doob stakes his claim early on. Briefly noting Davis and Moore’s (1945) structural–functionalist theory of stratification, he moves quickly through its flaws and takes the reader on a tour de force of more critical perspectives: from Marxist critiques, Weberian ‘‘iron cages,’’ Mills’ ‘‘power elite’’ to Dye’s institutional elite, where he does not dismiss any of the aforementioned perspectives but honestly shows how each shines light on a different aspect of capital, labor, and our major social structures. Social Inequality and Social Stratification in US Society is an excellent book for those looking to introduce young readers to the paradoxes, contradictions, and human suffering inherent in the capitalist enterprise. Matthew W. Hughey in Humanity & Society 2015, Vol. 39(2) 258 Table of ContentsChapter 1 The Road to Social Inequality: A Conceptual Introduction; Chapter 2 In Marx’s Wake: Theories of Social Stratification and Social Inequality; Chapter 3 Repeat Performance: Globalization through Time and Space; Chapter 4 Foundation for Social Inequality: Concepts and Structures; Chapter 5 Heading the Hierarchy: Upper Class or Superclass?; Chapter 6 The Badly Besieged Middle Class; Chapter 7 Working Class: Estranged from Entitlement; Chapter 8 American Poverty: The Dream Turned Nightmare; Chapter 9 Racism: A Persistent American Presence; Chapter 10 Women’s Oppression: Sexism and Intersectionality; Chapter 11 Astride with the Best and the Wisest;

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Book SynopsisThis text presents Nels Anderson's ethnographic work of a world of homeless men - a study conducted on Madison street in Chicago - and includes Anderson's later work on the juvenile and the tramp, the unattached migrant, and the family.Table of ContentsIntroduction The Hobos 1: Introduction to the Phoenix Edition of The Hobo 2: Hobohemia Defined 3: The Jungles: The Homeless Man Abroad 4: The Lodging House: The Homeless Man at Home 5: The Hobo and the Tramp 6: Summary of Findings and Recommendations 7: Summary of a Study of Four Hundred Tramps, Summer 1921 8: How and the Hobos: Character Sketch of J.E. How, "Millionaire Hobo" 9: The Slum: A Project for Study 10: The Juvenile and the Tramp 11: An Old Problem in New Form 12: The Unattached Migrant 13: Migrancy and the Labor Market 14: A Family in the Hobomania Era 15: The Sort of Jobs the Hobo Brought Urban Context: Work, and Leisure 16: Some Dimensions of Time 17: The Trend of Urban Sociology 18: Urbanism as a Way of Life Selected Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis text presents Nels Anderson's ethnographic work of a world of homeless men - a study conducted on Madison street in Chicago - and includes Anderson's later work on the juvenile and the tramp, the unattached migrant, and the family.

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Book SynopsisSets out to determine when and why valedictorians end up at less selective schools, showing that social class makes all the difference. This title traces valedictorians' paths to college and presents damning evidence that high schools do not provide sufficient guidance on crucial factors affecting college selection.Trade Review"Top Student, Top School? is an important, well-conceived, and well-written study. The topic addressed is of critical importance. Higher education is meant to facilitate social mobility, but a large body of research suggests it instead reproduces inequality. Here Alexandria Walton Radford gives us a much better understanding of the mechanisms that prevent higher education from achieving this central goal." (Richard D. Kahlenberg, The Century Foundation)"

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