Volume 22, Number 7 · May 1, 1975
What Rules America?
By Andrew Hacker
The Personal Distribution of Income and Wealth
edited by James D. Smith
National Bureau of Economic Research/Columbia University Press, 568 pp., $17.50
The Bohemian Grove and Other Retreats: A Study in Ruling-Class Cohesiveness
by G. William Domhoff
Harper & Row, 250 pp., $2.45 (paper)
Why can't we deal with class? Terms like 'upper middle' and 'lower middle' refer to style and sophistication, not the deeper divisions of social life. On the whole we prefer to circumvent the question of class. We think of cities as being composed of 'ghettos' and 'white ethnics' and 'the aged.' Discussing families on welfare or crime in the streets, we speak of blacks and Puerto Ricans. Sociologists neutralize the subject by referring to 'stratification.' Or they tell us it is 'ambiguous' and 'complex.' The Census once reported that 70 percent of all Americans show some 'inconsistency' between their earnings, education, and occupations. We all know Yale graduates who are driving taxis.
Review, 3983 words
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