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The New Middle Classes

Life-Styles, Status Claims and Political Orientations

  • Book
  • © 1995

Overview

Editors:
  1. Arthur J. Vidich

    1. New School for Social Research, New York, USA

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Part of the book series: Main Trends of the Modern World (MTMW)

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Table of contents (18 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
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  2. Introduction

    1. Introduction

      • Arthur J. Vidich
      Pages 1-11

  3. Emergence of the New Middle Classes: Theoretical Problems and Historical Changes

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 13-13
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    2. The Discovery of the New Middle Classes

      • Val Burris
      Pages 15-54

    3. The New Middle Class

      • Emil Lederer, Jacob Marschak
      Pages 55-86

    4. Middle-Class Notions and Lower-Class Theory

      • Hans Speier
      Pages 87-102

    5. The Growth of the New Middle Class

      • Anthony Giddens
      Pages 103-129

  4. The Status Sphere and the Psychology of Classes

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 131-131
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    2. The Status Sphere

      • Hans H. Gerth, C. Wright Mills
      Pages 133-143

    3. The Foundations of Social Rank and Respect

      • Hans Speier
      Pages 144-150

    4. Bureaucracy and Masked Class Membership

      • Hans Speier
      Pages 151-160

    5. Economic Class, Status and Personality

      • Joseph Bensman, Arthur J. Vidich
      Pages 161-185

  5. The New Middle Classes in the United States

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 187-187
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    2. The New Middle Class, I

      • C. Wright Mills
      Pages 189-202

    3. The New Middle Class, II

      • C. Wright Mills
      Pages 203-214

    4. The Transformation of the Black Middle Class

      • Arthur S. Evans Jr
      Pages 215-237

    5. Changes in the Life-Styles of American Classes

      • Joseph Bensman, Arthur J. Vidich
      Pages 238-258

  6. The New Class System in the United States: Life-Styles and Political Orientations

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 259-259
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    2. The New Class System and its Life-Styles

      • Joseph Bensman, Arthur J. Vidich
      Pages 261-280

    3. Liberalism and the New Middle Classes

      • Arthur J. Vidich, Joseph Bensman
      Pages 281-299
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Keywords

About this book

This volume is designed first to provide a theoretical orientation and historical perspective on the rise of the middle classes in modern civilization, and second, to portray the social and political roles these classes have played and continue to play in the United States over the past century, with particular reference to the American class structure and political economy. Our method is necessarily both historical and sociological and offers an orientation for understanding contemporary American society. The essays included here were written between 1926 and 1982: they reveal both the genealogical development of sociological thought about the middle classes and the substantive content of these classes' life styles, status claims and political orientations. The present work stresses empirical studies and puts forth neither a theoretical interpretation nor a conceptual taxonomy; rather it delineates the emergence and the social and political significance of the new middle classes in relation to the classes, above and below, that preceded them.

Editors and Affiliations

  • New School for Social Research, New York, USA

    Arthur J. Vidich

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The New Middle Classes

  • Book Subtitle: Life-Styles, Status Claims and Political Orientations

  • Editors: Arthur J. Vidich

  • Series Title: Main Trends of the Modern World

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-23771-5

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies Collection, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 1995

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-0-333-61759-5Published: 08 November 1994

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-349-23771-5Published: 27 July 2016

  • Series ISSN: 2947-289X

  • Series E-ISSN: 2947-2903

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XI, 405

  • Topics: Political Sociology, Sociology, general

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