The American Working Class: Prospects for the 1980s

The study of continuities and discon-tinuties in American working-class life represents a central concern in the literature on stratification and equality. This book, based on a 1975 Ford Foundation conference and updated to take into account the most recent developments, offers a sobering appraisal of the American working class, revealing the continuing gap between organized and unorganized workers despite the huge increase in the work force; the emergence of subclass structures between factory workers at one end and workers engaged in marginal occupations at the other; and the durability of pluralistic, multiclass politics within this large and amorphous working class.

The volume is unique for several reasons: it focuses directly on the role of women in the labor force, ethnic and racial divisions within the working class, and the place of organized labor in international affairs. The American Working CJass Today offers a penetrating and wide-ranging examination by leading social and political researchers of a range of problems — from how data are collected and manipulated to what the future holds for American workers.

Contents and Contributors: THE THEORY OF AN AMERICAN WORKING CLASS John H.M. Laslett, S.M. Miller, Martha Bush, Irving Louis Horowitz CLEAVAGES AND CHANGES WITHIN THE WORKING CLASS Edna Bonacich, Gabriel Kolko, Edna E. Raphael. Robert Bibb, Martin Oppenheimer, Frank Riessman, John C. Leggett THE WORKING CLASS IN AN INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT Henry Berger. William H. Form, Helen Icken Safa, Elizabeth Jelin