CLASS : A GUIDE THROUGH THE AMERICAN STATUS SYSTEM

Rating:
Summary: Essential reading for social climbers
Review: An excellent summary of how the social strata in the U.S. arrange themselves by taste rather than necessarily by income.
It does show its age and could use at least a new chapter outlining the effects of social trends of the last twenty years on our class system such as the pervasiveness of personal computers and the internet, immigration, "political correctness", downsizing, etc. Fussell's description at the end of Class X sounds like an early incarnation of the Bobo class
described in David Brooks' recent book, which shows that no one ultimately escapes classification, so use the information presented in this book to at least pretend to be a class higher than you actually are.

Rating:
Summary: Keep it with you at all times.
Review: Fussell's book is like the Bible. In times of great doubt or confusion, open its pages and allow it to comfort you. He brings clarity to why we behave as we do in America. When you find yourself chasing after some nebulous dream or envying the shingles on your neighbors's roof, Fussell's book will tell you why, so that you might redirect your energies with more insight and integrity. Although not intended as a self-help book, its revelations about how we all fit in to the secret class system have the power to liberate.

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Summary: Hysterically funny, and right on target in every way
Review: This is on my required reading list. Readers who dislike this book do so because they see themselves in it, and it makes them uncomfortable.

Rating:
Summary: Amusing, but dated
Review: As a curmudgeon myself and a card-carrying cynic I enjoyed Fussel's trenchant wit. He absolutely hits the mark in skewering social norms... as they were in the 1980s. But almost 20 years have passed since the book's 1983 publication, and the tirade has not aged so well. New trends have upended many of the traditional class relations Fussel took aim at, and at least 2 new social classes have developed since then (results of the technology and information booms of the last 15 years) while others have begun fading into irrelevence. Read this book if you remember how class lines were drawn in the 1980s -- especially if you were bothered by them -- but look elsewhere if you want humor or insight on contemporary society.

Rating:
Summary: One simply doesn't know such people
Review: One question has preyed on me ever since I read Mr. F's book, Class. He wrote that people in Class X don't attend church - and, moreover, don't know anyone who does. Now, what happens if you've managed to ensconce yourself in this desirable X niche - but you meet someone who goes to church? I suppose if it's someone who works for you, or who is one of your students, that doesn't count? But suppose you meet someone by accident and get friendly, say at an art gallery reception for the opening of your new exhibit - or even find yourself in bed with someone (much younger, of course) - and learn that the person attends church? What to do? Instantly forget the person's name and face? Chuckle about it with your friends the next day? Does it make a difference if the person is Buddhist or Baptist? Does it rub off? What if the X person remains close to family members who attend church? In short, how does the freewheeling, egalitarian, classless, sophisticated X man or woman manage to safely avoid persons who may be deceptively X, and yet harbor secret religious leanings, perhaps as holdovers from upbringing in another class? I was up for hours worrying about it. I had naturally oozed into Class X by virtue of reading books and going to college, and yet from time to time I knew, and even became friends with, persons of religious persuasions not my own. All my natural fibers and amusing, ironic knick-knacks were scarcely enough to clear the taint. Please, Mr. Fussell, help me!

Rating:
Summary: Take a second look at yourself!
Review: This is a delicious sardonic read that you will not forget whether you find the book shallow and deprived of real "research" findings or not. Move up (or, as the author suggests more likely, move down) in the class ladder, but above all, remember to be yourself!

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Summary: Poseur self-exposed
Review: The text, originally published in 1983, has a dated feel to it. One is left with the question of why this should be the case. After all, some surface details and commonplaces have changed, but surely the fundamentals of culture and society have not changed much. The answer is, as in most situations like this, that there really isn't all that much more at hand to engage the reader. There is an underlying "backbone" guiding Fussell's observations, but here things get even worse: that underlying "fundamental" such as it is, involves in the almost endless indulgence in class/social stereotypes and cliche. It is a completely deserved irony that Fussell, whose tone is consistently and zestfully deprecatory--often in a mock "clinical" consideration of the hopelessly inferior--ends up mainly revealing himself as an individual apparently incapable of actual insight, completely second-rate in considering the topics he purports to analyze. Now there is an underlying "paradigm" of sorts, and that seems to be that classes conform deeply and faithfully to stereotypes and stereotypical anecdotes Fussell outlines. That's the problem: things, fortunately, are neither that simple nor that uninteresting. Another thing that has worn rather thin and badly over these years (at least I hope, for Fussell's sake, the book read more amusingly in 1983) is the tone Fussell consistently adopts: It's the nudge-in-the-ribs--hey, reader, it's only you and I struggling against the boredom and contamination of these ridiculous and pathetic lifeforms--arising from amused consideration of the hopelessly inferior. (Even the implementation in words of Fussell's intended tone rings false. It has to it a certain adopted Anglophilic quality. In apparent service to it, Fussell adopts and consistently uses terms like "prole" that are absolutely alien to American English usage. A usage like this is either another minor dishonesty or, perhaps, a disclosure not explicitly intended. At least it can be said for Fussell that his effort is not written illiterately.) It thus comes as no surprise that, after surveying the dismal classes, from top to bottom, Fussell produces the revelation that there is also a virtuous and meritorious "Class X", separated from and above all of the miserable stupidities, dishonesties, and repressions of the Classes of the Damned. Here the sense becomes almost rhapsodic. Could it be--could it just possibly be--that Fussell is one among them?? This part is almost hilarious, because, with his characteristic shallowness, Fussell proceeds to describe a "Class X" as absurdly stereotyped as the previously described dismal classes.
As I read this book, the thought came to me recurringly: I really need to read de Toqueville again. Fussell notes, certainly correctly, that de Toqueville made some observations that ultimately didn't pan out. (Of course certain fundamental and famous ones, such as projections of future racial problems, did.) The answer as to why, after more than 150 years, de Toqueville retains interest and vitality bears on the reasons why Fussell doesn't after less than twenty (or, I would suspect, one). It's the obvious one--that the intelligence and insight of de Toqueville is still interesting and captivating, just as the lack of these qualities in Fussell's book fails to evoke these feelings. In summary, Fussell comes off here as a would-be Gore Vidal who in fact more closely resembles Eddie Haskell.

Rating:
Summary: Let's just say I read it in 3 hours!
Review: This book is great if class and the dynamics of society interest you. I laughed out loud several times and even questioned my own behavior. The author, Paul Fussell, is someone whom I would consult on any variety of matters as he is obviously well educated. This book is not to be taken quite literally but nonetheless it is educational. I only wish more people would strive to be at least upper-middles.

Rating:
Summary: Bridges gap between pop culture and "serious" scholarship
Review: If you count entertainment value along with insight, this is one of the best books I've read. Yes, it does come from a northeastern, Ivy, upper-class, point of view, but where else do scholars and writers come from? Fussel's book is bitchy, acerbic, etc..., but that doesn't mean he's wrong. Hell, I'm an redneck ( an educated upper-middle class cowboy from a university that Fussell takes to task, and from a town he makes fun of) but I still loved the book.

Rating:
Summary: good
Review: This is a very interesting book. I took the test at the end, scoring points as I walked through my living room, pleased my living room held all the elements of an upperclass one. If I'd scored lower, I might have thought this book a worthless piece of tripe! It is caustic and arrogant at times (how could it not be, really.) Mostly entertaining, though, and often eye-opening.