The New Class Society: Goodbye American Dream? 4th Edition

A thoughtful, very up-to-date, radical interpretation of the changing American class system.

In this 4th edition of a seminal work, Wysong (Indiana Univ.-Kokomo), Perrucci (Purdue), and Wright (Wichita State Univ.) update their previous assertions regarding the loss of the middle class and the American dream. In the wake of the recent recession, banking and industry bailouts, the Occupy movement, and similar influences, the underlying message of the previous editions is even more salient. This volume represents an updated version of what came before, expounding on the ‘double diamond’ model of US society. Supporting their assertions with new and diverse evidence, the authors support this model as a departure from past constructs of society that more resemble a layered wedding cake, for example. Recent years have been replete with evidence of the theory represented by this double diamond model. Therefore, since this volume represents the most current permutation and presentation of the growing chasm in US society, it remains an exceptionally important book. The developments of recent years have done nothing to weaken the core of the theory, but rather have provided substantial and nuanced support. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-level undergraduate and graduate collections related to stratification.

The New Class Society fourth edition offers an original, well-researched, and highly revealing analysis of the American class structure. This book is essential reading for those interested in the problem of rising inequality, but more broadly it is an invaluable resource for anyone concerned about the current and future state of the American Dream.

The New Class Society vividly document the end of the middle class and the shameful reality of a two-tiered America. This is sociology that speaks truth to power, opens the conversation we need about social class, and exposes the illusions of the American Dream. Required reading for every American concerned with America.

This text is both an introduction to class structures in the US and an analysis of their evolution and entrenchment. The authors, American sociology professors, argue that over the last 40 years dramatic class inequalities have re-emerged even deeper than before. They take a pluralistic approach to defining and studying class, favoring socioeconomic and not just productive interpretations. Their new class system is defined by a privileged upper-class and a highly stratified new working-class. They consider the influence of globalization, how the middle-class died, class war, money in politics, the information industry, the role of education in creating new forms of privilege, class-biased policy planning, the “pacification of everyday life” and then the role of the culture industry, and class in the 21st century. New material in this edition includes up to date data on The Great Recession, student debt crisis, and electronic media’s influence on people’s perception of class.

Robert Perrucci is professor of sociology at Purdue University, a past president of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, and former editor of the American Sociologist, Social Problems, and Contemporary Sociology. Together they are the authors of the award-winning book The New Class Society: Goodbye American Dream?