Class Lives

Stories from across Our Economic Divide

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Pub Date Dec 18 2014 | Archive Date Nov 18 2014

Cornell University Press | ILR Press

Nonfiction (Adult)

Description

Class Lives is an anthology of narratives dramatizing the lived experience of class in America. It includes forty original essays from authors who represent a range of classes, genders, races, ethnicities, ages, and occupations across the United States. Born into poverty, working class, the middle class, and the owning class—and every place in between—the contributors describe their class journeys in narrative form, recounting one or two key stories that illustrate their growing awareness of class and their place, changing or stable, within the class system.The stories in Class Lives are both gripping and moving. One contributor grows up in hunger and as an adult becomes an advocate for the poor and homeless. Another acknowledges the truth that her working-class father's achievements afforded her and the rest of the family access to people with power. A gifted child from a working-class home soon understands that intelligence is a commodity but finds his background incompatible with his aspirations and so attempts to divide his life into separate worlds.Together, these essays form a powerful narrative about the experience of class and the importance of learning about classism, class cultures, and the intersections of class, race, and gender. Class Lives will be a helpful resource for students, teachers, sociologists, diversity trainers, activists, and a general audience. It will leave readers with an appreciation of the poignancy and power of class and the journeys that Americans grapple with on a daily basis.

Class Lives is an anthology of narratives dramatizing the lived experience of class in America. It includes forty original essays from authors who represent a range of classes, genders, races...

Advance Praise

“The stories in Class Lives all engage the reader at a directly personal level that both stimulates and guides self-reflection on the role of class and the awareness of class in one's own life. The overall class framework—poor, working class, middle class, and owning class—is intuitively compelling in itself, and the individual essays bring that framework to life in a way that is even more compelling and memorable.”—Jack Metzgar, Roosevelt University, author of Striking Steel: Solidarity Remembered

“Class Lives addresses the forbidden subject on the U.S. landscape: class. But it does so through the narratives of a spectrum of writers who examine—indeed, interrogate—their own experiences in order to make sense of their backgrounds, their challenges, their successes, and their worldviews. This deeply personal collection takes issues of class and class struggle off the shelf of both academia and social struggle and situates them in the context of living the real contradictions of the real USA. I was drawn into this volume from the very opening pages.”—Bill Fletcher Jr., author of “They’re Bankrupting Us”—and Twenty Other Myths about Unions

"Too often, 'class' is viewed as a concept without meaning or impact. Class Lives demonstrates through powerful stories how we are all impacted by the challenges (for the poor) and opportunities (for the rich) imposed on us by class. Pushing against class barriers is critical for those who care about justice and fairness. This book will help us all."—Kim Bobo, Executive Director, Interfaith Worker Justice

"In a sad world where our class origins matter more and more, it is useful to have these candid stories about exactly how they matter, from thoughtful people who have devoted their lives to combating injustice."—James M. Jasper, author of Protest: A Cultural Introduction to Social Movements

"Among the many things that shape our movements, the class identities of principal players are among the least examined. In this insightful book, dozens of authors share heartfelt stories of their struggles with and consciousness around class. Class Lives takes class from a social taboo and brings it to life." —Rinku Sen, President of Race Forward: The Center for Racial Justice Innovation and Publisher of Colorlines

Available Editions

EDITION	Other Format
ISBN	9780801479656
PRICE	$19.95 (USD)

Additional Information

Average rating from 6 members

Featured Reviews

Kel M, Media/Journalist

We are not all middle class

Class Lives Stories From Across Our Economic Divide (A Class Action Book), edited by Chuck Collins, Jennifer Ladd, Maynard Seider, and Felice Yeskel (ILR Press/Cornell University Press, $19.95).
We’d like to believe that we’re all middle class, but the reality is, we’re not. In fact, unless you own more property than the heavily-mortgaged house you’re living in and would be able to lose your job without fear of immediately falling into poverty, thanks to savings and investments, you’re probably not middle class. More likely, you’re working class: dependent upon wages for the vast majority of your income, with equity in your home but no income property.

But the illusion of the universal middle class is extremely persistent in the United States, and in Class Lives: Stories from Across Our Economic Divide, the editors use the personal narratives of people of varying backgrounds to illuminate how different life can be for those on the “down” side of America’s class divide. As we continue our national discussion about economic inequality, this book offers a new way to approach understanding what that inequality means: simply listen to the lives of people on the scarcity side of the divide. While we might argue about where the line between middle class and, well, everything else is (Is it home ownership? Reliance on wages? Access to consumer goods?), these stories offer more personal perspectives, as well as insight into the psychological and social consequences of even mild forms of poverty.