Living It Up : America's Love Affair with Luxury7 reviews James B. Twitchell Simon & Schuster, 2003 Luxury, a new religion analyzed + A Guilty Gordon Gekko + Posh LUST This is a landmark book. The author analyzes in very detail the mechanisms behind selling luxury to the public, including the religious attributes affixed to those products. "Probably it shouldn't get into the hands of consumers", because they might find out they are spending too much money for ...             Durable Inequality1 review Charles Tilly University of California Press, 1999 prompt delivery, product in condition advertised The book arrived within two weeks of my ordering it and was in the condition advertised.             The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin14 reviews Benjamin Franklin Touchstone, 2003 How can I give Benjamin Franklin fewer than five stars? + The Greatest American, Period! + This book will make you a better person... + Benjamin Franklin             The Winner-Take-All Society: Why the Few at the Top Get So Much More Than the Rest of Us12 reviews Robert H. Frank, Philip J. Cook Penguin (Non-Classics), 1996 An Explanation for the Growing Economic Inequality + Brilliant book + Interesting Book by 2 Top Notch Economists The basic premise of this book is that the U.S. has too many markets where the "star" or top performer gets a large percentage of the proceeds. Examples are the sports market, the movie star market and the publishing market; The reasons given are; -Technology. National distribution channels ...             Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life11 reviews Annette Lareau University of California Press, 2003 Unequal Childhoods Well Written and Well Researched + Thoughtful look at parenting + Very interesting and readable + Unequal Childhood Review + great service             The Pecking Order: A Bold New Look at How Family and Society Determine Who We Become11 reviews Dalton Conley Vintage, 2005 You'll never look at your own family the same way again Conley's main point is that if you really want to improve your child's future, the best way to do it is to limit the number of his siblings. This strikes me as a result that vast numbers of Americans, not to mention people elsewhere, would do well to heed. I constantly hear people people in the ...             The Protestant Establishment: Aristocracy and Caste in America1 review E. Digby Baltzell Yale University Press, 1987 A landmark that endures - readable and full of insight This is a serious analysis of class in America. If you are interested in understanding America and how it got that way, The Protestant Establishment should be on your reading list. Baltzell coined the term WASP, and broke new ground in other, more important ways in this book. Baltzell is a very ...             Class Matters8 reviews The New York Times Times Books, 2005 We are not a classless society + Class Matters - and This Book Documents How + Very insightful + Why Doesn't Gender Matter?             The Affluent Society23 reviews John Kenneth Galbraith Mariner Books, 1998 courage of thinking + Writing style has stood the test of time as well as the arguments + Hail, Galbraith!! + The Hobo Philosopher + Affluenza?             Inequality by Design3 reviews Claude S. Fischer, Michael Hout, ... Princeton University Press, 1996 An excellent, thorough, accessible critique of The Bell Curv + Easy-to-read, yet academic, critique of The Bell Curve Fischer et al. launch a reasoned yet devastating critique on methodological grounds of Herrnstein & Murray's infamous _The Bell Curve._ The first half of the book details technical errors and ommissions from TBC, offering three distinct arguments against Herrnstein & Murray's basic claims, all ...             Categorically Unequal: The American Stratification System Douglas S. Massey Russell Sage Foundation Publications, 2007 The United States holds the dubious distinction of having the most unequal income distribution of any advanced industrialized nation. While other developed countries face similar challenges from globalization and technological change, none rivals America's singularly poor record for equitably distributing the benefits and burdens of recent economic shifts. In Categorically Unequal, ...             America's Untapped Resource: Low-Income Students in Higher Education Century Foundation Press, 2004 With access to higher education more important than ever, low-income students of all racial and ethnic groups continue to lag in participation. What can be done to ensure that more low-income students have adequate financial aid to attend college? That disadvantaged students are academically prepared for college and will graduate? That selective universities are open to students of all economic ...             Where We Stand: Class Matters32 reviews bell hooks Routledge, 2000 Book encourages reflection on recent events + forthright, rigorous + concise and clear + Where We Stand: Class Matters by bell hooks             The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality15 reviews Walter Benn Michaels Holt Paperbacks, 2007 I wouldn't agree with his solutions, but he gets the statement of the problem exactly right + Resource distribution, not income distribution Short and cogent argument that the current "neoliberal" emphasis on diversity (of race, culture, language, or religion) devalues economic equality and real political progress. "Celebrating diversity . . .is now our way of accepting inequality." Michaels doesn't spend much time talking about his ...             Generational Income Mobility in North America and Europe Cambridge University Press, 2004 What economic regimes offer children born into poor families the best hope of moving into higher income groups? This study analyzes and contrasts the experience of the more free market based North American and British economies with the more corporate state models of continental Europe. Written by leading economists from North America and Europe, the book combines innovative methodology with ...             The Inequality Reader: Contemporary and Foundational Readings in Race, Class, and Gender David B. Grusky, Szonja Szelenyi Westview Press, 2006 In this new volume noted scholars David B. Grusky and Szonja Szelényi have assembled a compilation of the most relevant contemporary readings on social inequality that is also backed by a select list of the most fundamental classics, all from top names in the field.             Luxury Fever33 reviews Robert H. Frank Princeton University Press, 2000 For both left- and rightwingers + An Important Message to all Americans 8 Years after its release, this book has only become more relevant. Its argument can be stated in a single sentence: Our soaring expenditures on luxury articles are the result of a zero-sum status seeking conquest, that leaves everybody worse off. This is ultimately an empirical claim, and as ...             Sociology of Religion: A Reader Susanne C. Monahan, William A. Mirola, ... Prentice Hall, 2000 This collection of articles explores the relationship between the structure and culture of religion and various aspects of social life in the United States. Based on both classic and contemporary research in the sociology of religion, it highlights a variety of research methods and theoretical approaches in exploring the ways in which religious values, beliefs and practices shape the world ...             Social Inequality Russell Sage Foundation Publications, 2004 Inequality in income, earnings, and wealth has risen dramatically in the United States over the past three decades. Most research into this issue has focused on the causes—global trade, new technology, and economic policy—rather than the consequences of inequality. In "Social Inequality," a group of the nation’s leading social scientists opens a wide-ranging inquiry into the social implications ...             Poverty and Inequality (Studies in Social Inequality)1 review Stanford University Press, 2006 Conceptual and Measurement Issues Re: Poverty & Inequality The book starts with a credible observation that there is a resurgent interest in problems of poverty and inequality due to any one or a combination of the following: (1) globally economic inequality is on the rise, (2) the distances between geographical areas have diminished with newer and faster ...