About this title: This book describes the living-room artifacts, clothing styles, and intellectual proclivities of American classes from top to bottom.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Touchstone
Date Published: 10/1/1992
ISBN-13:9780671792251ISBN:0671792253
Description: Fine. 0671792253 NEW/UNREAD! ! ! Text is Clean and Unmarked! --Be Sure to Compare Seller Feedback and Ratings before Purchasing--Has a small black line on bottom/exterior edge of pages. May have light shelf wear to cover from storage, if any. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Dorset Press
Date Published: 1990
ISBN-13:9780880295802ISBN:0880295805
Description: Avillez, Martim de. Good in good dust jacket. Ex-library. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 203 p. Illustrated by Martim de Avillez. 1990 Dorset Press. Hardcover with mylar covered dust jacket. Exlibrary copy with card pocket and usual stamps and markings. Barcode cut out of mylar and dust jacket back (2-1/2"X 1") otherwise book is in excellant condition. Pages are very clean and show no noticable user wear. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1983
ISBN-13:9780671449919ISBN:0671449915
Description: De Avillez, Martim. Very Good in Very Good jacket. Very Good/Very Good, Hardback/Dust Jacket, jacket rubbed/small tears at spine ends, 202 pages, black and white illustrations, pencil notations. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Touchstone
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780671792251ISBN:0671792253
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Touchstone Books
Date Published: 1992-10-01
ISBN-13:9780671792251ISBN:0671792253
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780671792251. read more
"Mr. Fussell dissects the America of the late 70s - early 80's into seven classes and then gives withering citations of their modes of consumption, education and mating habits. Clearly he is most pleased with the upper three eschelons of society in his system until he begins to describe what he calls "Class X." Then the love begins. Strange."
"In Class, Fussel is an acerbic and ruthless observer of the struggles to maintain, ascend or fall in the American class system, one we refuse to admit we have. His keen eye for detail and refusal to modify his vocabulary would make us all cringe were we to encounter him in any setting. It is not the setting that defines one, it is behavior. A very good and humbling read it is."
"Fussell has written a very entertaining and insightful book that that analyses the class system that is a very really but subtle part of american society. The one down side to this book is that Fussell is a bit extreme and at times self-conceded. It seems as if the last chapter of his book "the x way out" is simply a justification of his chosen life-styles supposedly rid of class consciousness.
Anyone who is a "people-watcher" will like this book because it arms them with the language to analyze others. Also if you intrigued by any type of social observations (things such as trying to figure out why people try to keep up with the Joneses, ect...) this book provides some great theories for such behavior."
"This book is older than I am by a year, but I still found it to be relevant. The specifics of class distinctions have aged a bit, but the basic idea is still the same. America has a rigid class system, and the things that people do, buy, say, and think are what defines it.
I took the book as a semi-satirical work, and after all, it's written under a fake name and with a mock-imperious tone, so I think that's a safe assumption. If you take the book at face value, then you'll probably be insulted by it. If you take it was a piece of social critique, then you'll enjoy it.
The book is a series of essays on what different facets of life say about different classes of people. There are bottom-out-of-sights (true to their name, they're barely mentioned), low and high proles, middle, and upper-middle class, and the top-out-of-sights. The basic idea behind these classes are that everyone, except for the two extremes, strive to emulate those above them. In effect class envy is a sort of neurosis that drives most economic decisions that people make.
At the end of the book Fussell, which is to say Donald Reagan, gives us hope beyond endless class posturing with the X class. These are people that have divorced themselves from the anxiety of sinking or rising in the class structure, and decide to appropriate a bit from everyone (except for the middles, who they seek to satirize and avoid) and live however they want. You have to assume that if you willingly pick up a book about class in America then this is where you'll fall, and be infinitely gratified by this last chapter.
The book has changed how I look at a lot of seemingly innocent behavior, and made me (at least temporarily) more class conscious. My next step, after I read some other stuff I have backlogged, will be picking up one of the contemporary interpretations of this work."
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
rating
