Living with Class

Stanley Aronowitz, Graduate Center of the City University of New York, USAM. Lane Bruner, Georgia State University, USAKevin Bruyneel, Babson College, USAJon Dietrick, Babson College, USAEmily M. Drew, Willamette University, USAHenry A. Giroux, McMaster University, CanadaRobin Truth Goodman, Florida State University, USADick Howard, Stony Brook University, USATed Kafala, College of Mount Saint Vincent, USAKristin Lawler, College of Mount Saint Vincent, USAPepi Leistyna, University of Massachusetts, Boston, USALisa Nel, independent scholarAnn Neumann, Drew University, USARavi K. Perry, Mississippi State University, USAYasmiyn Irizarry, Mississippi State University, USATimothy J. Fair, Mississippi State University, USARaúl Rubio, John Jay College of the City University of New York, USAThomas Thorp, Saint Xavier University, USA bell hooks, independent scholar

"That class is an exceedingly and evermore complex phenomenon is hardly a reason to ignore its importance as a category for understanding society, either in national frameworks or in the world as a whole. There were very good reasons why other categories, such as race, gender, and sexuality, came to the fore in recent decades, one of these reasons being the difficulties in hitherto-existing paradigms to understand modes of production in all of their diverse materiality. The essays in this important book show well how class, complexified, remains crucial to not only understanding the world, but indeed to changing it." - Bill Martin, Professor of Philosophy, DePaul University, USA

• Introduction: Working Class; Ron Scapp and Brian Seitz 1. Class Dismissed: The Issue Is Accountability; bell hooks 2. Letter from a Lovelorn Pre-Radical: Looking Forward and Backward at Martin Luther King Jr.; Kevin Bruyneel, 3. In Search of a New Left, Then and Now; Dick Howard 4. The Status of Class; Stanley Aronowitz 5. 'Fix the Tired': Cultural Politics and the Struggle for Shorter Hours; Kristin Lawler 6. Literary and Real Life Salesmen and the Performance of Class; Jon Dietrick 7. Money Changes Everything?: African American Class-Based Attitudes toward LBGT Issues; Ravi K. Perry, Yasmiyn Irizarry, and Timothy J. Fair 8. Democracy without Class: Investigating the Political Unconscious of the United States; M. Lane Bruner 9. Re-Forming Class: Wealth, Culture, and Identity in South Africa; Lisa Nell 10. Whiteness as Currency: Rethinking the Exchange Rate; Emily M. Drew 11. Dying with Class: Race, Religion, and the Commodification of a Good Death; Ann Neumann 12. New Materialisms and Digital Culture: Productive Labor and the Software Wars; Ted Kafala 13. Feminist Theory and the Critique of Class; Robin Truth Goodman 14. Criminal Class; Eric Anthamatten 15. Consuming Class: Identity & Power through the Commodification of Bourgeois Culture, Celebrity, and Glamour; Raúl Rubio 16. When Prosperity Is Built on Poverty, There Can Be No Foundation for Peace, as Poverty and Peace Don't Stand Hand in Hand; Pepi Leistyna 17. Solon the Athenian and the Origins of Class Struggle; Thomas Thorp 18. Memories of Class and Youth in the Age of Disposability; Henry A. Giroux