Politics and the Class Divide: Working People and the Middle Class Left (Labor And Social Change)

By David Croteau

Book Overview

"People don't believe they have a say anymore, so they've given up." That's the cynical conclusion of one worker in this study of the relationships between working people and the middle-class left. This rare accessible book on class differences in American life examines the impact of class status on an individual's participation--or non-participation--in the political process. Focusing on the relative absence of white working-class involvement in many contemporary U.S. liberal and left social movements, David Croteau goes straight to the source: members of the working class and activists in the environmental, peace, women's, and other social movements. Croteau rejects standard assumptions that apathy or simple conservatism explain working-class nonparticipation. Instead, he highlights the role of class-based resources and explores how varying cultural "tools" developed in different classes are more or less helpful in navigating and influencing the existing political environment. Commonly, he finds, the result is a middle-class sense of power and entitlement and a working-class sense of powerlessness and fatalism. Contemplating the future of social movements, he explores how lack of diversity hurts the effectiveness of what have become isolated middle-class movements, and proposes solutions that would increase the future political participation of working people in social movements. Author note: David Croteau, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University, is co-author of By Invitation Only: How the Media Limits Political Debate.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566392543
• ISBN13: 9781566392549
• Release Date: December 1994
• Publisher: Temple University Press
• Length: 285 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.0" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Interesting Research, Thought Provoking Conlusions

An excellent read for anyone who considers themselves a member of the American left. The author offers important considerations for all activists who think they are doing the right thing. Croteau carefully describes how far the middle class left and the working class have drifted from each other. The conclusions he draws are well thought out and, at times, surprising. The research methods that he uses are interesting and thought provoking. Croteau does nothing to conceal his biases; it was nice to read a book by someone so up front about his goals.