Money And Class In America

"Money and Class in America: Notes and Observations on Our Civil Religion was first published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, New York, in 1988"--Title pages verso.

The idea that money can buy the future, virtue, happiness and fulfillment is now so embedded in the American consciousness that it has transformed all classes of society. In a spirited and wholly original work, Lapham analyzes the effects of the money dream on American class structures, culture, celebrity, crime and politics.

"A trenchant analysis of how the wealthiest 9.9 percent of Americans -- those just below the tip of the wealth pyramid -- have exacerbated the growing inequality in our country and distorted our social values"--

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 George Amory, the man I preferred to call, was heir to a large Long Island fortune. He was a tennis player and a blond and handsome insouciant elegance embodied in a tailor’s window. He had three children, but his wife was without substantial means of her own, and they couldn’t afford to live comfortably. #2 Amory’s story is a prime example of the pathologies of wealth. He was born into the ranks of the equestrian class and educated to the protocols of wealth at prep school and college. He couldn’t afford to raise his children like his parents had done for him, and his feeling of failure showed in his eyes. #3 I grew up in San Francisco, which was a city known for its romantic image of itself. The citizens doted on a romantic image of themselves, and they lacked any sense of other voices in other parts of town. #4 The point of view that the world is an entertainment for the rich assumes that Australians will play tennis, that Italians will sing or kill one another in Brooklyn, that blacks will dance or riot, and that holders of a season subscription will live happily ever after.

The Old Money Book details how anyone from any background can adopt the values, priorities, and habits of America's Upper Class in order to live a richer life. Expanded and updated for a post-pandemic world.

This book describes the living-room artifacts, clothing styles, and intellectual proclivities of American classes from top to bottom.

The acclaimed New York Times series on social class in America—and its implications for the way we live our lives We Americans have long thought of ourselves as unburdened by class distinctions. We have no hereditary aristocracy or landed gentry, and even the poorest among us feel that they can become rich through education, hard work, or sheer gumption. And yet social class remains a powerful force in American life. In Class Matters, a team of New York Times reporters explores the ways in which class—defined as a combination of income, education, wealth, and occupation—influences destiny in a society that likes to think of itself as a land of opportunity. We meet individuals in Kentucky and Chicago who have used education to lift themselves out of poverty and others in Virginia and Washington whose lack of education holds them back. We meet an upper-middle-class family in Georgia who moves to a different town every few years, and the newly rich in Nantucket whose mega-mansions have driven out the longstanding residents. And we see how class disparities manifest themselves at the doctor's office and at the marriage altar. For anyone concerned about the future of the American dream, Class Matters is truly essential reading. "Class Matters is a beautifully reported, deeply disturbing, portrait of a society bent out of shape by harsh inequalities. Read it and see how you fit into the problem or—better yet—the solution!"—Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch

With the latest data on income, wealth, earnings, and residential segregation by income, The American Class Structure in an Age of Growing Inequality, Tenth Edition describes a consistent pattern of growing inequality in the United States since the early 1970s. Focusing on the socioeconomic core of the American class system, author Dennis L. Gilbert examines how changes in the economy, family life, globalization, and politics are contributing to increasing class inequality. New to this Edition “The Class Basis of Trump's Victory” looks at why for the first time since before the 1932 election, the Republican presidential candidate won a greater proportion of the working class vote than the Democratic opponent. Addresses the role of technology and other factors in the decline of manufacturing employment and how the trend is crucial for understanding growing inequality and changes in working class family life. Offers international comparisons to show how the U.S. compares with other wealthy nations on social mobility and poverty, and questions our conception of the U.S. as a uniquely open society.