ATH 185 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Lawrence Samuels, Social Stratification, Socalled
16 Oct 2018
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ATH 185- Eller Chapter 5
• Class
o “American Dream” was reportedly first used by historian James Truslow Adam in
1931, at a time (the Great Depression) when that dream seemed particularly
unattainable for many. p89
o Lawrence Samuel’s cultural history of the so-called American Dream, it has
always been a vague and fragmented idea, associated with “familiar troops” like
“continually rising expectations, the entrepreneurial spirit, the sacredness of
home, the seductiveness of wealth, the pressure to succeed, our perverse
fascination with hope and change and the belief that anything is possible. p89
▪ The American Dream has idealized the idea of upward mobility, in that
eventually there will be a better life in the future.
o The Big Three: Class, Race/Ethnicity, and Gender
▪ Class can be referred to as the defining issue of society, it should
determine the individuals place in society.
▪ Egalitarian Society: U.S. likes to imagine that we have this society, all
individuals are equal—or at least free to try.
▪ Unlike race, there is no inherent physical characteristic to class. p.90
• Class may be assigned on the basis of physical characteristics
(race) and it may certainly have physical consequences (health or
life expectancy.
• Class is different for all societies. May have a relationship
between race, gender, and education, often tied to the economy
as well.
• The Social Concept of Class
o A categorical scheme, and the classification can be anything. “Class” tends to
refer to some economic criterion, which is necessarily quantitative and
hierarchical.
▪ A cause and effect of Social stratification: the “layering” of society into
higher and lower levels
▪ **How we determine who is a part of what class is different for every
culture**
2
▪ Social Mobility: whether one can change his/her class position
• A class position is thus typically determined by ascribed and
immutable qualities and is difficult to change. (ex. Hindu caste
system is determined at birth and you are not able to change your
class, they combine not only economic, but also political, and
even spiritual social functions to determine class)
▪ The U.S. maintains an ideal of “open” classes, in which a person may or
should establish his/her own class position. Not determined by ascribed
or innate qualities but is negotiable on the basis of achieved traits like
education or profession. P.90
• Becoming a part of the middle class in the U.S is one of the
measures of assimilation for race and ethnic groups who are
striving to become Americans
o Social Theories of Class
▪ Karl Marx: class was his first area of concentration, he argued that the
most fundamental aspect of any society was the kind of work that people
did, that is, labor or how a society produced the goods and services that
it needed. “Mode of Production” p.91
• Marx’s ideology included arts, religion, philosophies, the media,
and the educational system.
• Believed that class was the only thing that mattered, ethnicity and
race did not.
• He identified two classes—“means of production” who he called
“bourgeoisie” and those who owned nothing and sold their labor
for money whom he called “proletarians”
o It was the role of the bourgeoisie to define the relations
and ideology of society, and in their interest to keep the
society steady and unchanging.
▪ Émile Durkheim: Made socio-economic differences central to his theory
of society.
• The key to modern society was the division of labor: modern,
industrial, urban society featured many different jobs to perform
and therefore a specialization of labor.
o It was the glue that held urban society together because of
our large dependence on each other
Document Summary
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