
Middle Class: An Intellectual History through Social Sciences
An American Fetish from its Origins to Globalization
Battistini Matteo(Author)
Haymarket Books (Publisher)
Published on 28. July 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
217 pages
979-8-88890-007-9 (ISBN)
Description
According to Matteo Battistini, The 'middle class' has become a fetish forged by the social sciences to legitimize American capitalism. In this invaluable monograph, Battistini traces the intellectual history of the middle class, and offers a social history of the political concept, whose specific scientific content has acquired an ideological centrality in the U.S. that has no equal in European history. Middle Class argues that the social sciences have freed the middle class from its historical relationship with work in an attempt to emancipate it from the tension into which it was continually dragged by class conflict. In the process, the social sciences overtun the image of opposing forces of labour and capital, replacing it with an image of a consensual order whereby capitalism and democracy can coexist without tensions.
Originally published as Storia di un feticcio. La classe media americana dalle origini alla globalizzazione, by Mimesis, Milan, Italy, 2020.
Originally published as Storia di un feticcio. La classe media americana dalle origini alla globalizzazione, by Mimesis, Milan, Italy, 2020.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Chicago
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 12 mm
Weight
318 gr
ISBN-13
979-8-88890-007-9 (9798888900079)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Matteo Battistini is Professor of U.S. History at the University of Bologna. He has published monographs and articles on American political and intellectual history, including Karl Marx and the Global History of the American Civil War.
Content
Preface
Acknowledgments
1?The Middle Class between History and Social Sciences
?1?The (Lower) English Middle Class
?2?Bourgeoise and Classe Moyenne
?3?Mittelstand and Neuer Mittelstand
?4?Crossing the Atlantic
2?The American Middle Class A Taken-for-Granted History?
?1?The Middle Class as a Historiographic Category
?2?The Middle Class as a Sociological Problem
?3?The Middle Class of Progressivism
?4?Brain Workers of the World, Unite!
3?The Middle Class as Historical Project
?1?The Demiurge of the Middle Class
?2?The New Deal for the Middle Class
?3?The Crisis of the Middle Class
?4?The Ideological Battle for the Middle Class
?5?The Middle Class as Political Concept
4?The Rise and Fall of a Fetish
?1?The Middle Class of Liberalism
?2?The Movement against the Middle Class
?3?The New Class of Neoconservatism (and Neoliberalism)
?4?The Middle Class as a Figure of the Crisis (in Globalisation)
References
Index
Acknowledgments
1?The Middle Class between History and Social Sciences
?1?The (Lower) English Middle Class
?2?Bourgeoise and Classe Moyenne
?3?Mittelstand and Neuer Mittelstand
?4?Crossing the Atlantic
2?The American Middle Class A Taken-for-Granted History?
?1?The Middle Class as a Historiographic Category
?2?The Middle Class as a Sociological Problem
?3?The Middle Class of Progressivism
?4?Brain Workers of the World, Unite!
3?The Middle Class as Historical Project
?1?The Demiurge of the Middle Class
?2?The New Deal for the Middle Class
?3?The Crisis of the Middle Class
?4?The Ideological Battle for the Middle Class
?5?The Middle Class as Political Concept
4?The Rise and Fall of a Fetish
?1?The Middle Class of Liberalism
?2?The Movement against the Middle Class
?3?The New Class of Neoconservatism (and Neoliberalism)
?4?The Middle Class as a Figure of the Crisis (in Globalisation)
References
Index