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Created: January 12, 2003
Latest Update: January 12, 2003
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Social Class in the United States

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, January 2003..
"Fair use" encouraged.

This teaching module is based on a New York Times article, Sunday, January 12, 2003, by Caryn James in the Arts and Entertainment Section, at p. AR1: Upward Mobility and Downright Lies Review of the movie Maid in Manhattan. Backup.

Social stratification, the "class" that Marx saw as so damaging to the humanity and development of society, has never been a popular topic in the United States because we have held so to the identity myth that our country offers freedom and social mobility to all. That wasn't true in the beginning, when we had slave-holding colonies; when the constitution was written; or today. We are as plagued by social class and "class struggle" as every other society, for class, or the status and power associated with "class," is often the primary basis for the ruling hierarchy in government, in the market, in global as well as local trade.

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