White Collar: The American Middle Classes / Edition 1

by C. Wright Mills, Russell Jacoby

Overview

In print for fifty years, White Collar by C. Wright Mills is considered a standard on the subject of the new middle class in twentieth-century America. This landmark volume demonstrates how the conditions and styles of middle class life—originating from elements of both the newer lower and upper classes—represent modern society as a whole.
By examining white-collar life, Mills aimed to learn something about what was becoming more typically "American" than the once-famous Western frontier character. He painted a picture instead of a society that had evolved into a business-based milieu, viewing America instead as a great salesroom, an enormous file, and a new universe of management.
Russell Jacoby, author of The End of Utopia and The Last Intellectuals, contributes a new Afterword to this edition, in which he reflects on the impact White Collar had at its original publication and considers what it means to our society today.
"A book that persons of every level of the white collar pyramid should read and ponder. It will alert them to their condition for their better salvation."-Horace M. Kaellen, The New York Times (on the first edition)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195157086
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/26/2002
Edition description:	Fiftieth Anniversary Edition
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	8.51(w) x 5.62(h) x 1.01(d)
Lexile:	1350L (what's this?)

About the Author

The late C. Wright Mills, former Professor of Sociology at Columbia University, was a leading critic of modern American civilization. His other books include The Sociological Imagination and The Power Elite (both OUP). Russell Jacoby is Professor of History at UCLA and a contributing writer to The Nation, The New York Times, and Harper's.

Table of Contents

PART ONE: OLD MIDDLE CLASS1. The World of the Small Entrepreneur1. The Old Middle Classes2. Property, Freedom and Security3. The Self-Balancing Society2. The Transformation of Property1. The Rural Debacle2. Business Dynamics3. The Lumpen-Bourgeoisie3. The Rhetoric of Competition1. The Competitive Way of Life2. The Independent Farmer3. The Small Business Front4. Political PersistencePART TWO: WHITE COLLAR WORLDS4. The New Middle Class: I1. Occupational Change2. Industrial Mechanics3. White-Collar Pyramids5. The Managerial Demiurge1. The Bureaucracies2. From the Top to the Bottom3. The Case of the Foreman4. The New Entrepreneur5. The Power of the Managers6. Three Trends6. Old Professions and New Skills1. The Professions and Bureaucracy2. The Medical World3. Lawyers4. The Professors5. Business and the Professions7. Brains, Inc.1. Four Phases2. The Bureaucratic Context3. The Ideological Demand4. The Rise of the Technician8. The Great Salesroom1. Types of Salesmen2. The Biggest Bazaar in the World3. Buyers and Floorwalkers4. The Salesgirls5. The Centralization of Salesmanship6. The Personality Market9. The Enormous File1. The Old Office2. Forces and Developments3. The White-Collar Girl4. The New Office5. The White-Collar HierarchyPART THREE: STYLES OF LIFE10. Work1. Meanings of Work2. The Ideal of Craftsmanship3. The Conditions of Modern Work4. Frames of Acceptance5. The Morale of the Cheerful Robots6. The Big Slipt11. The Status Panic1. White-Collar Prestige2. The Smaller City3. The Metropolis4. The Status Panic12. Success1. Patterns and Ideologies2. The Educational Elevator3. Origins and Mobilities4. Hard Times5. The Tarnished ImagePART FOUR: WAYS OF POWER13. The New Middle Class: II1. Theories and Difficulties2. Mentalities3. Organizations14. White-Collar Unionism1. The Extent Organized2. Acceptance and Rejection3. Individual Involvement4. The Shape of Unionism5. Unions and Politics15. The Politics of the Rearguard1. Models of Consciousness2. Political Indifference3. The Mass Media4. The Social Structure5. U.S. Politics6. The RearguardsAfterword by Russell Jacoby

Editorial Reviews

"A book that persons of every level of the white collar pyramid should read and ponder. It will alert them to their condition for their better salvation."—Horace M. Kaellen, The New York Times (on the first edition)

From the Publisher