Rating: 
Summary: LOST & FOUND: STUDYING AMERICANS' DANCE AROUND SOCIAL CLASS
Review: After searching high and low during several years in rare and out-of-print book shops for Paul Fussell's CLASS IN AMERICA (published in 1982), I found his recycled 1992 version at the Montclair, NJ Public Library ... and now here. A GUIDE THROUGH THE AMERICAN STATUS SYSTEM is by and large mainly a slimmed down version of Fussell's earlier and fancier (more expensive) hard covered edition of his quite excellent sociological study on American class. These are the writings of a competent sociologist. Clearly, the style of the earlier and present books is anything but the usual dry rendering of a Chi-squared collection of numerical data from controlled surveys. Typical sociological studies produce dessicated narratives which non-sociologists wouldn't be caught dead reading. Thus Fussell's whimsy interjected into what amounts to a pioneering 1982 experiment in sociological writing about class in America is no longer as novel and as groundbreaking in 2000 as it was two decades ago. After all, the original CLASS IN AMERICA predates the deadly serious and lucrative business of small upstart personal computer companies such as Apple and Internet browser rebels like Yahoo which challenged the erstwhile stogey style of International Business Machines. Now, whimsy is "in" even at IBM. Yet A GUIDE THROUGH THE AMERICAN STATUS SYSTEM still works for me, as its predecessor worked for me in 1982. The only thing I miss is an appendix of Fussell's questionnaires wherein you too can become a sociological sleuth in your neighborhood. The original book was much fatter but also more practically useful because of these survey forms. Moreover, their absence may have caused some modern readers to doubt the seriousness of Fussell's methodology. From Chapter I, A Touchy Subject (Americans don't like to openly recognize class in America) through Chapter IX, The X Way Out (living in a style that avoids being pigeon holed), the reader can enjoyably find his or her place in the American social hierarchy. One can painlessly learn many social truths from this book because it is written in an unpretentious and seemingly unscholarly style. Nevertheless, the material is excellent. To test one of Fussell's sociological (i.e., scientific) hypotheses, I followed his class paradigm with my house (a.k.a. "home"). Most of my neighbors have neatly maintained lawns from their houses to the sidewalks. I decided to plant mainly evergreen shrubs (a hell of a lot more expensive .... but maybe not in the very long run). Although shrubs cost a lot more per square foot than grass does in the beginning, they are much cheaper and less work to maintain [however, according to Fussell higher maintenance translates into higher class]. The shrubs half concealed my house, as intended (that is, after ten years!). Now, everyone on my block proclaims it looks great (and probably I added 10% to the property value of the house ... but never mind the money). It was a real experiment based on applying what Fussell's book records from a social analysis leading to his class-house/home paradigm. Having successfully confirmed at least one of Fussell's hypotheses, the rest of them have a lot of credibility for me. But forget the serious stuff. Where else can you buy so much entertainment these days for a measely $8.80! To gain a better understanding of class in America (or merely to increase the real estate value of your house/home) read: A GUIDE THROUGH THE AMERICAN STATUS SYSTEM.
Rating:
Summary: Cheeeeky
Review: Hilarious, sassy in an 80-year-old-aficianado- of-British-history kinda way, and not to mention...astute. Middle-class term. It's fun to pigeonhole your acquaintences into social "classes" (another stupid word), and I'm not saying that in a sarcastic, self-righteous, indignant psuedo-democratic manner; it really is. Heh, heh. Laugh at how prole your parents are; expose Mercedes-driving rich people as middle-class...members in front of their rich middle class friends. Oh, this book is almost more fun to absorb than "Gilligan's Island". Notable chapters: "The X Way Out", "Recreation, Consumption, Bibelots", "The Life of the Mind"... Oh, they're all great. Paul Fussell is a big, prole-looking nut with whom I'd love to discuss the editing of "New Yorker" magazine.
Rating:
Summary: Ouch ouch ouch
Review: Although we typically think of three "classes" in the U.S.--lower, middle and upper--it's a lot more complicated than that--at least according to Fussell in this acid-tongued book. And, oh, is it funny, all the more so because he is so accurate. While we all know to what class the shirtless, tattooed, long-haired hillbilly with a scruffy goatee, a sheathed Buck knife and his wallet chained to his jeans belongs to, where are the rest of us who aren't so obvious? If you want to find out, this book will clue you in. You'll never look at your fellow citizens the same are reading it. And you might just look at yourself a little differently, too.
Rating:
Summary: PROLE DRIFT GOT YOU DOWN?
Review: Can you tell if your fiancee is really upper-middle class or just faking it? Is the metric system vulgar? And once you sink in class, can you ever rise again? Don't worry, English professor Paul Fussell explains it all for you. Faster and funnier than any government report, more accurate than a busload of sociologists, "Class" will give you the lowdown on where your allegedly "classless" fellow Americans really stand. From the "top out of sight" ultra-rich through the middle classes and the "proles" down to the destitute "bottom out of sights," Fussell has everyone pegged. Clothes, consumption, speech and leisure give us away much more thoroughly than politics or money. I introduced this book to two different book-discussion groups and noticed the same phenomena at each: (1) most people loved it and no one disliked it; (2) the funniest parts were the people we recognized at one remove ("suburbanites," "yuppies," "old money," etc.); and (3) the book will draw blood at least once when Fussell deals with YOUR case! You can count on it, so you'd better be a good sport! Many of the reviewers found "Class" dated; I didn't. Although "Class" was first published in the Reagan Eighties, the Clinton Nineties seem to me just a more genteel version of the same old social jockeying. As Fussell says, there is very limited "room at the top" but all too much "room at the bottom." About the biggest criticism I have of the book is that his descriptions of bohemian "X" types are so individualistic that they seem to have been drawn from his circle of friends. "Prole drift," by the way, is the tendency for "mass" to drive out "class." When the checker at your local discount house makes a mistake on your order and you have to stand in line to get it fixed at an overcrowded "Customer Service" center--that's prole drift. Likewise when your town loses the last grocery store that delivers. Fussell tried to expand on mass vs. class later on in "Bad: The Dumbing Down of America" which isn't a bad book, but it isn't a gem like "Class." Yes, "Class" has an acid tone, but it's also very right-on and laugh-aloud funny. And it does my heart good to see an academic who is interested in communicating with non-academics--rare in these deconstructed times.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and Frighteningly Accurate
Review: This excellently-written book rings all-too-true. Often amusing, often deadly accurate. Odd and amazing to read something that you do described as typical indicators of your class! I can't wait for Fussell to write another book on this topic!
Rating:
Summary: Not just from the Northeast
Review: Several reviewers say this funny book is slanted toward northeasterners. I was raised in the "old South" and Dr. Fussell's class descriptions could have come right out of my home town. The northeast doesn't have a corner social climbers with tiresome pretensions! I was lent this book and I have ordered one to keep and keep laughing.
Rating:
Summary: FUSSELL WORTHY OF FUSS
Review: I fuss over this book because it is awful, disgusting and entirly wrong. You might be wondering now why I'm giving it a 5. I'll tell you - it's because Mr. Fussell is such an attractive hunk of a man. Every time I see the stud on the back flap I just want to open it again and again and again and again...
Rating: 
Summary: very entertaining, but outdated.
Review: I have read this book countless times, and it never fails to entertain. it is boldly written and readers recognise themselves everywhere. The drawback to the book, it that is very outdated. The middle class described seems more like the stereotyped new suburbanites of the '50's than anyone in a modern middle class neighborhood. Also, the old-money sorts are a vanishing breed; income tax and competition are doing them in. What is the upper class like today? I would really be happy if the author wrote another book that was updated and included people who were not lily-white.
Rating:
Summary: 'Painfully Accurate' Indeed, but a Class-ic (er... sorry...)
Review: But Seriously... While the social landscape will probably be much more familiar to a person who lives/has lived in the North East, Fussell's description of 'Class' in America is uncannily accurate. The title being 'shorthand,' really, for the 'cultural castes' in America that do not necessarily correlate to one's income and wealth, Fussell's book is genuinely far more than mere pop-sociology. Rather, in one short book, Fussell delineates with near-perfection every major convention and code of conformity in American life. It is no exaggeration to say: 'this book will set you free,' for if you have the courage to recognize yourself within its pages - and, believe me; rich, poor, middle-class, we're all in there - besides an extremely entertaining read, you will come away with both a genuine distaste for conformity - however it should manifest itself - as well as the instinct to think for yourself. As for 'X-people'; well, that I believe is simply Fussell coining a new term for bohemians, and here lies the only criticism I would make of the book: in his description of 'X-people' Fussell may well be guilty of laying down a new code of conformity of his own. We've all taken on an affectation of some sort in our lives, we've all felt insecure, we're all products of our background in many ways: admit it, be at ease with it, then get in the habit of 'living what you like.' To be free both of the 'tyranny' of one's own particular social paradigm, as well as the burdensome care of what unfortunate individuals - still constricted by their own ingrained ideas of what is 'proper' - may think of you, presents you with a world suddenly free of illusory, popularly prescribed limitations. Realize that conformity to any counter-culture is still conformity, avoid the pitfall of self-congratulation - shall we call this an 'ugly-duckling syndrome?' - and the world is at your feet!
Rating:
Summary: Ouch!!!
Review: When you strip away the veneer, what you are left with is the truth. There is not a person in America who will not find themselves described in this book.
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