Class: A Guide Through the American Status System (Paperback)

by Paul Fussell (Author) "Although most Americans sense that they live within an extremely complicated system of social classes and suspect that much of what is thought and done..." (more)
Key Phrases: prole drift, low proles, high proles, New York, United States, Wright Mills (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Alison Lurie The New York Times Book Review A shrewd and entertaining commentary on American mores today. Frighteningly acute. -- Review

Review
Chicago Sun-TimesHighly amusing....a witty, persnickety, and illuminating book....fussell hits the mark.

The Washington PostMove over, William Buckley. Stand back, Gore Vidal. And run for cover, Uncle Sam: Paul Fussell, the nation's newest world-class curmudgeon, is taking aim at The American Experiment.

Wilfrid SheedThe AtlanticA fine prickly pear of a book....Anyone who reads it will automatically move up a class.

Alison LurieThe New York Times Book ReviewA shrewd and entertaining commentary on American mores today. Frighteningly acute.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone (October 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671792253
• ISBN-13: 978-0671792251
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (122 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,271 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

257 of 275 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still current, still very funny, September 28, 2001

By	Antonio Nunez (Bogotá, Colombia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I read this book some ten years ago, and it struck me as most humourous and overall correct.

Although I was born in South America, I have lived and studied in the US, and I have studied and worked in France and the UK. My experience in all these geographies supports Fussell's conclusions. It is true that the higher the social class, the taller and slimmer people tend to be. It is true that the traditional lower (rather than the underclass) and the higher classes have many things in common, among them a deeply ingrained conservatism and a fierce pride in their way of being. In the UK, working class men's clubs are fighting the same fight which was lost a few years ago by the gentlemen's clubs: the right to keep women away from at least some parts of their premises. Many working class people all over the world deride attempts by others of a similar origin to "pass themselves out" as middle class, and regard middle class dress, speech patterns and social habits as feminine and unsound. There is probably no significant difference in the prejudiced, deeply uncurious mindset of Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh and that of a pensioner his age living in Yorkshire. It is true that strident religious opinions, big hair of unnatural colour and painted nails, or toupees and poorly-fitting jackets are usually the predictor of lower-to lower middle class background, or that high professional qualifications, gym memberships, affiliation with environmental organizations and career ambitions normaly denote urban middle class.

It might be seen as cruel, even evil, to remark on it, but don't the following terms clearly conjure a mental image of a particular order of things? (a) barcalounger, (b) trailer park, (c) WWJD, (d) community college, (e) Tom Jones, (f) spam, (g) gin and tonic, (h) dinner jacket, (i) pesto, (j) 100% polyester, (k) white supremacy, (l) homemaker, (m) National Enquirer, (n) The New Yorker, (o) Nantucket, (p) Detroit, (q) credit card debt, (r) bodice-ripper, (s) short-sleeved dress shirt, (t) pocket protector, (u) hunting dog, (v) Armani, (w) Ivy League, (x) inner city, (y) Dairy Queen, (z) educator. Think of words like individual (pronounced "individjal") or expressions like people of colour. Those who disbelieve Fussell's arguments to identify social classes just haven't been paying attention, for there are signs everywhere that they are still alive and well.

Fussell is very perceptive on many points. He notices that English spelling and mock-old-English words (parlour, kippers, jolly good) are short-hand for the higher social orders, and that this is used by real estate developers to get homebuyers to pay more just to live in a posher sounding address. He sees that many people seem to believe that college education irrespective of the actual college places them on a par with Ivy League graduates, and he sees it as a cruel ruse on the gullible and insecure (this is true everywhere: in the UK, many years after the polytechnics and teachers colleges were turned into universities Cambridge and Oxford still top the lists and "a group of fewer than 20 universities attract 90 per cent of the resources available for research and take the lion's share of money for teaching", according to The Times; in France virtually the entire business, political and intellectual elite comes from a handful of institutes, notably ENA, HEC, Insead and the X), in spite of the fact that truly desirable employers, such as consulting firms only hire people out of a handful of institutions (for example, Accenture, with 70,000 employees, only recruits MBA graduates at 5 schools in the US and 3 in Europe).

He notices that most people confuse the more visible upper middle class (called in the US the Preppies, in the UK the Sloane Rangers, in France les BCBG, in Latin America la gente bien, o la gente fresa) with the much more reclusive upper class, which one rarely sees, perhaps luckily, for they tend to be troublesome and violent (cfr., "The House of Hervey", by Michael de-la-noy: party girl Lady Victoria Hervey has had a high profile dalliance with gangster rapper P. Diddy). He sees the clear difference between the upper middle class "Patrician" mindset, and the upper class "Aristocratic" one (in order to tell them apart, when you think of the upper middle class, think XIX century, Victorian, prudish, earnest, hard-working, dark, and when you think of the upper classes, think XVIII century, Augustan, idle, colourful, cynical: it's Dickens, Balzac and Jane Austen versus Lord Chesterfield, Boswell and Saint-Simon, or the Novel versus the Diary). This is indeed a key difference between the American North and South. The North's upper class (Saltonstalls, Cabots, Lodges, Ameses, Eliots, Adamses, Biddles) is distinctly Patrician, due to its deep Calvinist influence, whereas the South's (traditional California Land-owners or Alabama cotton-growers) is clearly Aristocratic (which is why only the South could produce William Faulkner's "Absalom, Absalom", and only the North could give forth "The Education of Henry Adams"). The US Civil War, seen in this fashion, is a re-play of the English Civil War between roundheads (Patricians)and cavaliers (Aristocrats).

Fussell also sees that economic development will not swell the ranks of the upper classes, but just create richer proles and lower-middle class people. While some people may think that because they are rich they are upper class, virtually no one else is fooled. Raul Gardini, formerly one of the richest men in Italy (who killed himself a few years ago), once said that he and Silvio Berlusconi were just very rich stiffs, whereas Gianni Agnelli was a prince. If we look at the people who benefitted the most from the bubble economy of the 90s (such as software experts, web designers, internet enterpreneurs, telemarketers, singers and dancers and sport idols), we will see that most of them don't even try to appear upper class by wearing Armani or Ralph Lauren clothes, driving Bentleys, taking up polo or hunting or buying a yacht. They are just happy to live it up, and don't much care to be seen as upwardly mobile.

Fussell was right when he wrote that Class was a very contentious subject in the US, that many more people thought of themselves as middle-class than was actually the case, and that simply discussing this matter was thought of as offensive. Reading some of the ratings for this book I have no doubt that this is the case. Some of the commentators appear personally offended by Fussell's opinions and think that "he's just a guy setting himself up as the standard for class, so we'll bring him down a peg or two". He does nothing of the sort. The only class with which he seeks to align itself is Class X, which is a bit like David Brooks' BoBos (Bourgeouis Bohemians), and he argues that only by stepping away from the class structure can we be totally free.

Some people may think that the social class structure is so undermined as to be nonexistent. That's not the case. Social classes are very robust, and, in way or another, manage to survive all economic or political upheavals (remember Milovan Djilas' book "The New Class", on the dominant bureaucrat/military class in Tito's officially Socialist Yugoslavia). In the US many people seem to think that money grants class. That is largely self-deception. As Fussell says, it takes at least three generations to produce a middle class person, and many more to produce an upper class one. Readers, do not berate the messanger for the message. To paraphrase Goldwater, "in your hearts you know he's right".

100 of 106 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You'll Hate it or You'll Love it, but You'll Never Forget It, July 8, 2001

By	Renee Thorpe (Karangasem, Bali) - See all my reviews

Bitingly witty and embarassingly well focused look at the main classes within American society.

Yes, there is an American aristocracy, but they aren't driving around in Ferraris or living in Beverly Hills. There is even a sort of aristocracy amongst the working class people whom Fussell generally refers to as proles. Fussell's sharp eye has found and catalogued an amazing array of signs that indicate class in America. Try to spot these signs at your next social gathering, or even subject your own living room to the survey at the end of the book (frighteningly accurate way to determine one's class)!

This is a book based on pigeon-holing people, and that is probably what most annoyed readers can't stand about Fussell. But class distinctions do exist, like 'em or not. The middle class hope to rise in class by sending their kids to Harvard or Yale, the Proles hope to do the same by getting more money. Lucky "X Class" people don't give a hoot about such climbing, and fortunately more of us are just veering sideways into that final category which Fussell charts as a kind of class alternative.

Actually, the book could also be a helpful guide to those with a need to temporarily masquerade as a member of a given class... Unfortunate but true that you will get better service at a jeweler's or other tony shop if you dress not so much "up" but into the highest class you can accurately manage. And if you want to blend in at the truck stop, there are plenty of hot tips to be gleaned from this book.

Yes, yes, we should best judge each other only by virtues like honesty and willingness to help, but the book is about class, that dazzling (and now not so mysterious) thing.

Not without the odd mistake (I argue that books piled around the living room are not so much a sign of the upper class as an intellect), it is an excellent, juicy little book that will make you either laugh or curse at Fussell and his incisive wit.

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Peck, be pecked, or choose not to peck..., May 25, 2006

By	ewomack "ewomack" (MN USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Class pervades American life. Each day people judge and rank others by appearance, manners, language, and "taste" in a great societal pecking order. Some of this happens by reflex. For certain people a man in a tank top carries a high "ewww" factor. Others wince at anything monogrammed (a sure sign that the wearer seeks attention). Some may even take offense at compliments while others find the lack of a compliment an affront. It's a complicated game, and not everyone chooses to participate. But for many the game goes unnoticed.

This small book provides a good overview of the rules of the American class game. Paul Fussell delineates the choices people make that cause others to judge and categorize them (since people don't choose their race that subject doesn't appear). Everything from clothes, cars, diction, consumption (conspicuous or inconspicuous), education, housing styles, and physique to pets, reading material, jewelry, food, words, sports, interior decorating, grammar, and entertainment receive brutally honest coverage. These characteristics get evaluated through an objective eye and not through the filter of a specific class. For Fussell has nasty things to say about all of the classes, even the uppers. Though the middle class receives the majority of his invective, being the class of snobbery (due to class insecurity). Regardless, none of the classes come out ahead, and none are ranked as "better" or "superior". The book doesn't aim to judge in the way the classes furtively judge each other. It more delineates while it attempts to expose the rules. And in this it excels.

While the tabulating of pros and cons continues through the first seven chapters, it slowly becomes clear that Fussell isn't condoning class climbing. "Class" won't help anyone "go up". It also doesn't belong in the "self help" or the "self improvement" section. In fact, it argues that class climbing and dropping remain rare and difficult feats. We're pretty much doomed to stay in the class, regardless of money, that we're weaned into. But that only applies to those that play the game.

Readers who wonder just where Fussell stands on the issue of class will find some answers in the final two chapters. In the end, he seems disgusted by the entire game. The cumulative effect of his sardonic comments pointed at all classes suggests this. The final two chapters almost confirm this suspicion. Chapter eight deals with climbing and sinking. He argues that even those that appear "to rise" still retain much of the behaviors of their birth class. But he emphasizes that sinking requires just as much effort as climbing. Nonetheless, we all seem to be sinking. A cultural progression towards the lowest common denominator has occured over the last century. As capitalism inevitably aims for the largest market share, pleasing proles - arguably the largest market sector - has become a national obsession. This results in, Fussell argues, "mass culture" and the homogenization of culture. Though he complains about this phenomenon with some vehemence, he offers up no solutions.

The final chapter really spells out Fussell's attitude towards the game. "The X Way Out" outlines a class that lives "outside of the class system" (it apparently inspired Douglas Coupland's novel "Generation X"). They avoid myopic class embarrassments by simply not playing the game. Many are self-employed or intentionally under-employed. And they manage to "avoid some of the envy and ambition that pervert so many." Fussell then ominously concludes: "It's only as an X, detached from the constraints and anxieties of the whole class racket, that an American can enjoy something like the LIBERTY promised on the coinage." Here lies the book's key sentence. After reading this the book takes on an entirely different life. Everything that comes before it should get redefined and reframed. Now it seems clear that Fussell is offering us a scathing critique as well as a cure for (some) class woes. In short, we don't have to play. But before we choose not to, we have to know that the game exists. "Class" forces us to face our lifestyles, values, and choices head on and thus reveals the class game that we find ourselves living within. It also presents us with a fundamental challenge: should we drop out? For those largely dismissive or ignorant of the complicated class system, this book can evolve into a life-changing experience. It even has the potential to forever change one's perspective. A rare book.

One final thing to keep in mind is the book's publication date: 1983. Of course the world has changed irreversibly in the past 20 years. Younger readers may miss some of the references, and some of the observations may now come off as quaint. This also begs the question: what would Fussell write now? What would he say about cell phones, the internet, day spas, portable computers, IPods, hybrid cars, and countless other now omnipresent things? Hard to say on some, easy to say on others.

Regardless of its age, much of the concepts in "Class" remain relevant today. The basic structure outlined still exists, though many people, on closer inspection, exist between classes or exhibit characteristics of more than one class. But despite its age and some of its simplifications, "Class" provides an invaluable framework to reevaluate the choices one makes every day.