- Paperback: 202 pages
- Publisher: Pocket Books; Reissue edition (1 Sep 1992)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0671792253
- ISBN-13: 978-0671792251
- Product Dimensions: 21.5 x 14.1 x 1.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 85,604 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
Alison Lurie "The New York Times Book Review" A shrewd and entertaining commentary on American mores today. Frighteningly acute.
Product Description
In "Class" Paul Fussell explodes the sacred American myth of social equality with eagle-eyed irreverence and iconoclastic wit. This bestselling, superbly researched, exquisitely observed guide to the signs, symbols, and customs of the American class system is always outrageously on the mark as Fussell shows us how our status is revealed by everything we do, say, and own. He describes the houses, objects, artifacts, speech, clothing styles, and intellectual proclivities of American classes from the top to the bottom and everybody -- you'll surely recognize yourself -- in between. "Class" is guaranteed to amuse and infuriate, whether your class is so high it's out of sight (literally) or you are, alas, a sinking victim of prole drift.
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First Sentence
Although most Americans sense that they live within an extremely complicated system of social classes and suspect that much of what is thought and done here is prompted by considerations of status, the subject has remained murky. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Although most Americans sense that they live within an extremely complicated system of social classes and suspect that much of what is thought and done here is prompted by considerations of status, the subject has remained murky. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As a newly successful young professional, I thrilled in this book's ride up and down our American class ladder. Outrageously funny, you'll need a thick skin not to take umbrage at times. I am still ashamed to learn that expensive technical wrist-watches imply horrible middle class status. Probably most Americans find offensive this book's teaching that one's class is inherited at birth, with little or no recourse to change it (an exception being marriage up or down). In the final chapter of the book, "The X Way Out", Fussell argues there is a class of Americans who have risen above class. However, I think he was self-indulgently describing middle-class, well-educated people like himself, who have a strong sense of irony and a sociologists intellectual rationalization of the class system. Certainly the members of his "X" group did not graduate from the ivy leagues, or drop-out of the urban high-schools. Though written in the early 1980's, Fussell's observations are almost all still pertinent in 1999. However, his characterization of corporations as evil overlords seems quaint and archaic in this era of 5% unemployment. In summary, if you ever wondered about an American class system, this book is for you.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I've never read anything even remotely as entertaining as "Class". Being a foreigner, I especially appreciated this unanticipated look at Americans. Somebody, please, get the author to write a sequel!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Anyone who wants to take up American citizenship should be made to read this book before they can take the oath, they should know what they are signing up for. Witty, true, well written "Class" has earned a perpetual place on my bookshelf.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Interesting, and occassionally witty but no Veblen
Paul Fussell decided to unearth some of the arcana of class behaviour in the US and the result is - depending on your perspective - witty, scathing, interesting, or offensive. Read more
Published 6 months ago by AK
Written by Someone Who Admits Never Visited Americans
This man, if you read the introduction, ADMITS he never actually went out and visited many Americans. Read more
Published on 20 Aug 2009 by Frugal in Bournemouth
A classless society?
If you've ever thought that America is a classless society (a phrase I remember John Major touting as his hoped-for image of Britain), reading this small book may make you change... Read more
Published on 22 Dec 2005 by Kurt Messick
Could be called "Class: Observations of a Spiralist." ;)
Amusing and informative but by no mean a match for Jilly Cooper's "Class" in terms of social observation or humour. Read more
Published on 5 Sep 2003 by "c_cretemaster"
The things P J O'Rourke was afraid to say
Who said Americans couldn't write satire ?
Hilarious, cruel, and only slightly smug
Published on 11 Dec 2000 by Andy Dingley
Excellent Sociological Analysis
By applying rigorous methodology and advanced statistical analysis, Professor Fussell ( PHD Harvard) has produced a concrete theory for understanding modern American class... Read more
Published on 24 July 1999
This is a DANGEROUS book. It should be BURNED ...
... so they can make room for more books about Madonna, Ricky Martin, Oprah's Selection of the Month, any book with "soul" in it's title, any book with "little... Read more
Published on 9 July 1999
1-St Class Read
Anyone who is interested in sociology and merely reading a good book should check this one out. A real eye opener! A Molotov's coctail of good humor and intelectual feedback. Read more
Published on 28 Jun 1999
As notable for whom it omits as for whom it includes
Paul Fussell's book CLASS is slightly tongue-in-cheek but still very informative --- on the classes it does deal with, that is. Read more
Published on 26 Jun 1999
funny but mean spirited and self serving
Fussell's serious works, most notably The Great War and Modern Memory, are masterpieces. In this book, however, he lets his nastiness roam far afield. Read more
Published on 21 Jun 1999
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