Social Class

Today's inequality is on a scale that none of us has seen in our lifetimes, yet this disparity between rich and poor has ramifications that extend far beyond mere financial means. In The Broken Ladder, psychologist Keith Payne examines how inequality divides us not just economically, but also has profound consequences for how we think, how our cardiovascular systems respond to stress, how our immune systems function, and how we view moral ideas such as justice and fairness.

From everyday apps to complex algorithms, Ruha Benjamin cuts through tech-industry hype to understand how emerging technologies can reinforce white supremacy and deepen social inequity. Benjamin argues that automation, far from being a sinister story of racist programmers scheming on the dark web, has the potential to hide, speed up, and deepen discrimination while appearing neutral and even benevolent when compared to the racism of a previous era. 

Rediscover the timeless romance and keen social commentary of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice," now thoughtfully adapted for the modern reader. This refreshed edition features clean formatting and contemporary typography, enhancing readability while maintaining Austen's original tone and intent. Lightly clarified language ensures that the wit and wisdom of Elizabeth Bennet's world remain accessible to today's audience, inviting both new readers and longtime fans to enjoy the beloved tale with renewed ease. Step into Regency-era England, where love and societal expectations clash in a ...

One of the most pernicious and persistent myths in the United States is the association of Black skin with poverty. Though there are forty million more poor white people than Black people, most Americans, both Republicans and Democrats, continue to think of poverty—along with issues like welfare, unemployment, and food stamps—as solely a Black problem. Why is this so? What are the historical causes? And what are the political consequences that result?

Following a remarkable epoch of greater dispersion of wealth and opportunity, we are inexorably returning towards a more feudal era marked by greater concentration of wealth and property, reduced upward mobility, demographic stagnation, and increased dogmatism. If the last 70 years saw a massive expansion of the middle class, not only in America but in much of the developed world, today that class is declining and a new, more hierarchical society is emerging. The new class structure resembles that of Medieval times. 

“Identity politics” is everywhere, polarizing discourse from the campaign trail to the classroom. But the “identity politics” so compulsively referenced bears little resemblance to the concept as first introduced by the radical Black feminist Combahee River Collective. While the Collective articulated a political viewpoint grounded in their own position as Black lesbians with the explicit aim of building solidarity across lines of difference, “identity politics” is now frequently weaponized as a means of closing ranks around ever-narrower conceptions of group interests. 

The Forsyte Saga chronicles the ebbing social power of the upper-middle-class Forsyte family through three generations, beginning in Victorian London during the 1880s and ending in the early 1920s. The saga begins with Soames Forsyte, a successful solicitor who buys land at Robin Hill on which...

From the Prime Minister of Canada, a bold and urgent argument for the foundational change that is required if we are to build an economy and society based not on market values but on human values Our world is full of fault lines—growing inequality in income and opportunity, systemic racism...

Class does make a difference in the lives and futures of American children. Drawing on in-depth observations of black and white middle-class, working-class, and poor families, Unequal Childhoods explores this fact, offering a picture of childhood today. Here are the frenetic families managing their children's hectic schedules of "leisure" activities; and here are families with plenty of time but little economic security.

He has built a fortune. Now he wants entry into a world that money alone cannot buy. Stanisław Wokulski has lived many lives: student, political exile, merchant, and self-made man. After returning to Warsaw with newfound wealth, he possesses the means to transform his future—and perhaps his place in society. Then he becomes captivated by Izabela Łęcka. Beautiful, aristocratic, and raised in a world far removed from his own, Izabela belongs to a class whose fortunes may be fading but whose social barriers remain formidable. As Wokulski is drawn deeper into her world, his pursuit becomes...

Many Americans, holding fast to the American Dream and the promise of equal opportunity, claim that social class doesn't matter. Yet the ways we talk and dress, our interactions with authority figures, the degree of trust we place in strangers, our religious beliefs, our achievements, our senses of morality and of ourselves all are marked by social class, a powerful factor affecting every domain of life.

While political and media elites hysterically condemn an imaginary epidemic of “white supremacy,” in the real world, white Americans are often openly discriminated against. Indeed, anti-white policies have become so interwoven in the fabric of American life that we often fail to recognize them.

The Hidden Rules of Taste and Power: Pierre Bourdieu on Fashion, Food, Art, Music, and Elite Culture Identity explains why taste works as a social signal rather than a purely personal preference. The book introduces Bourdieu’s central ideas in plain language: habitus, cultural capital, distinction, field, and symbolic power. These concepts help explain why some people move easily through galleries, restaurants, schools, and professional settings while others feel watched, corrected, or out of place. What often looks like natural confidence or refined judgment is usually the result of ...

Decode the unspoken sociology rules of wealth and power that dictate true social mobility in our modern world. Whether navigating workplace dynamics on your daily commute or reflecting on your personal history, this calm, clear-eyed guide reveals why some life journeys feel effortless while...

Bloomsbury presents The Ruling Class by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, read by Ina-Marie Smith. This mystery thriller by the bestselling author of The Inheritance Games is a gripping story of high stakes, betrayal, and unpredictable twists. Any problem can be fixed for a price . . . When Tess Kendrick is...

A reporter’s dogged quest to solve the murder of two teens uncovers a forgotten corner of the Deep South and the chilling web of police corruption, violence, and miscarried justice beneath its surface. "A captivating, richly reported and deeply humane story of found families, crooked cops...

In this, his best-known work, the controversial American economist and social critic Thorstein Veblen appropriates Darwin's theory of evolution to analyze the modern industrial system. For Veblen, the shallowness and superficiality observed in society results from the tendency to believe that true accomplishment lies in arriving at a condition of ostentatious wealth and status.

From how to set up an easy-to-use classroom management plan to how to handle difficult students, The Classroom Management Secret will equip you with everything you need to effectively manage your classroom, regardless of where you teach or who shows up on your roster. Based on the popular blog, Smart Classroom Management, the book progresses step-by-step through 45 time-tested strategies, showing you how to manage your classroom in a way that inspires students to want to behave.

Habitus in Everyday Life: How Invisible Social Patterns Shape Behavior, Confidence, Taste, and Relationships explains how social life gets under the skin. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s idea of habitus, it shows how upbringing, class, education, and repeated experience become posture, timing, taste, self-control, confidence, and instinct. Many reactions that seem purely personal are partly learned through long exposure to particular settings. A person may feel at ease in a meeting, uneasy in an expensive shop, careful around authority, skeptical of elite taste, or quick to apologize before ...

*The basis for the documentary Join or Die—now streaming on Netflix!* Updated to include a new chapter about the influence of social media and the Internet—the 20th anniversary edition of Bowling Alone remains a seminal work of social analysis, and its examination of what happened to our...