Here's a list of books that offer some good popular introductions to the idea of class in America. Suggestions for additional titles are welcome!

 

Aldrich, Nelson W. Jr. Old Money, The Mythology of America's Upper Class. Alfred A. Knopf (1988)

Alters, Diane. "We Hardly Watch that Rude, Crude Show: Class and Taste in The Simpsons," in Carol Stabile and Mark Harrison (eds), Prime Time Animation: Television Animation and American Culture . Routledge (2003)

Brooks, David. Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There. Touchstone Books (2001)

Butsch, Richard. The Making of American Audiences. Cambridge University Press (2000)

Butsch, Richard. "Ralph, Fred, Archie and Homer: Why Television Keeps Recreating the White Male Working- Class Buffoon," . in Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez (eds) Gender, Race and Class in Media: A Text-Reader.Sage (1995).

Cole, Harriette. How To Be, Contemporary Etiquette for African Americans. Simon and Schuster (1999)

DeMott, Benjamin. Created Equal: Reading and Writing About Class in America. Harper Collins (1996)

DeMott, Benjamin. The Imperial Middle: Why Americans Can't Think Straight about Class. Yale (1992)

De Santis, Solange. Life on the Line: One Woman's Tale of Work, Sweat, and Survival. Doubleday (1999)

Domhoff, G. William. Who Rules America?: Power and Politics. McGraw Hill (2002)

Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America. Metropolitan (2001)

Frank, Robert. Luxury Fever: Why Money Fails to Satisfy in an Era of Excess. Free Press (1998)

Fussell, Paul. Class: A Guide Through the American Status System. Touchstone Books (1992)

Goad, Jim. The Redneck Manifesto, America's Scapegoats: How we got that way and why we're not going to take it anymore. Simon and Schuster (1999)

Gose, Ellis. Color-Blind (seeing beyond race in a race-obsessed world). Harper Collins (1997)

Holtzman, Linda. Media Messages. M.E. Sharpe (2000)

hooks, bell. Where We Stand: Class Matters. Routledge (2000)

Kotlowitz, Alex. There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America. Anchor (1992)

Kozol, Jonathan. Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools. Harperperennial (1992)

Lamont, Michèle. Money, Morals, & Manners: The Culture of the French and the American Upper-Middle Class. The University of Chicago Press (1992)

Levine, Lawrence W. Highbrow Lowbrow, The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America. Harvard University Press (1990)

Lynes, Russell. The Tastemakers. Grosset & Dunlap (1954)

Moss, Kirby. The Color of Class: Poor Whites and the Paradox of Privilege. University of Pensylvania Press (2003)

Otis Graham, Lawrence. Our Kind of People, Inside America's Black Upper Class. Harper Collins (1999)

Parenti, Michael. Land of Idols: Political Mythology in America. St Martin's Press (1993).

Queenan, Joe. Red Lobster, White Trash, and the Blue Lagoon: Joe Queenan's America. Hyperion (1998)

Rodriguez, Richard. Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez. Bantam (1983)

Rose, Mike. Lives on the Boundary. Macmillan (1989)

Rymer, Russ. American Beach: How Progress Robbed a Black Town (and Nation) of History, Wealth, and Power. Harper (2000)

Sayles, Ginie Polo. How to Marry the Rich. Berkley Books (1992)

Sayles, Ginie Polo. How to Meet the Rich. Berkley Books (1999)

Sennett, Richard & Jonathan Cobb. The Hidden Injuries of Class. Vintage Books (1972)

Terkel, Studs. Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do. New Press (1997)

Veblen, Thorstein. The Theory of the Leisure Class. Penguin (1994)

Weiss, Michael J.. Latitudes & Attitudes, an Atlas of American Tastes, Trends, Politics, and Passions. Little, Brown and Company (1994)

Wray, Matt and Annalee Newitz (ed.). White Trash: Race and Class in America. Routledge (1997)

Zweig, Michael. The Working Class Majority: America's Best Kept Secret. Cornell University Press(2000)

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