| SES # | TOPICS | FILMS | READINGS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Introduction | |||
| 1 | Talking about class: Expanding inequalities in the 21st century | (no film) | Class Matters, a special series by The New York Times . Dash, Eric. "Off to the Races Again, Leaving Many Behind." The New York Times, April 6, 2006. DePalma, Anthony. "15 Years on the Bottom Rung." The New York Times, May 26, 2005. Johnston, David Cay. "Richest Are Leaving Even the Rich Far Behind." The New York Times, June 5, 2005. Scott, Janny, and David Leonhardt. "Shadowy Lines That Still Divide." The New York Times, May 15, 2005. Wessel, David. "As Rich-Poor Gap Widens in U.S., Class Mobility Stalls." The Wall Street Journal, May 13, 2005. |
| 2 | Studs Terkel's Working | People Like Us | Working. Introduction, Books 3, 5 (skip the third section), 8, and 9 (pp. 521-543 only). People Like Us. PBS. |
| 3 | Anthropology, narrative, and social class Doing "auto-ethnographies" | American Tongues |
Ewick, Patricia, and Susan Silbey. "Subversive Stories and Hegemonic Tales: Toward a Sociology of Narrative." Law and Society Review 29, no. 2 (1995): 197-226. American Tongues. Directed by Louis Alvarez and Andrew Kolker, 1987. |
| Theorizing class: Competing frameworks | |||
| 4 | Theories of class - Part I: Marx and Weber | (no film) |
Marx, Karl, and Frederick Engels. Manifesto of the Communist Party.
|
| 5 | Theories of class - Part II: Bourdieu and post-structuralism | (no film) |
|
| 6 | Intersecting identities: Class, race, and gender | Paris is Burning |
Gregory, Steven. "The Changing Significance of Race and Class in an African-American Community." American Ethnologist 19, no. 2 (1992): 255-274. Paris is Burning. Directed by Jennie Livingston, 1992. |
| Narratives of class in the U.S. | |||
| 7 | Searching for the American dream: Narratives and counter-narratives of upward mobility | Modern Times | Alger, Horatio, Jr. Ragged Dick and Struggling Upward. Especially pp. 3-132 (it's very quick reading) as well as the oral history selections.
Modern Times. Directed by Charlie Chaplin, 1936. |
| 8 | Class and race in black women's auto-biographies from the 1930s and 1940s | (no film) |
|
| 9 | The post World War II middle class | The Graduate |
The Graduate. Directed by Mike Nichols, 1967. |
| 10 | On the American Assembly Line: A vanishing industrial working class? | Roger and Me | Hamper, Ben. Rivethead. Roger and Me. Directed by Michael Moore, 1989. |
| 11 | The Worlds of the rich | Born Rich | Sittenfeld, Curtis. Prep: A Novel. Born Rich. Directed by Jamie Johnson, 2003. |
| 12 | Up and down: From climbing the social ladder to a fear of falling | (no film) | Rodriguez, Richard. Hunger of Memory. |
| 13 | Welfare and the politics of the U.S. "underclass" | When the Levees Broke | DeParle, Jason. American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, and A Nation's Drive to End Welfare. (Selections) When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. Directed by Spike Lee, 2006. |
| Conclusion | |||
| 14 | The politics of red and blue, rural and urban, and a widening social gap | (no film) | (no readings) |
Table of Contents
Study Materials
Readings
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This section features the required books as well as a listing of specific readings and films by session.
Required Books
Terkel, Studs. Working [1974]. New York, NY: New Press, 1997. ISBN: 9781565843424.
Alger, Horatio. Ragged Dick and Struggling Upward [1867/8]. Reprint ed. New York, NY: Penguin Classics, 1985. ISBN: 9780140390339. The e-texts are also available at Project Gutenberg: Ragged Dick, Struggling Upward.
Hamper, Ben. Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line. Reprint ed. New York, NY: Grand Central Publishing, 1992. ISBN: 9780446394000.
Rodriguez, Richard. Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez: An Autobiography. Boston, MA: D. R. Godine, 1982. ISBN: 9780879234188.
Sittenfeld, Curtis. Prep: A Novel. New York, NY: Random House, 2005. ISBN: 9781400062317.
DeParle, Jason. American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids and a Nation's Drive to End Welfare. Reprint ed. New York, NY: Penguin, 2005. ISBN: 9780143034377.