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Class : A Guide Through the American Status System
Class A Guide Through the American Status System
Author: Paul Fussell
In Class Paul Fussell explodes the sacred American myth of social equality with eagle-eyed irreverence and iconoclastic wit. This bestselling, superbly researched, exquisitely observed guide to the signs, symbols, and customs of the American class system is always outrageously on the mark as Fussell shows us how our status is revealed by ...  more »
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ISBN-13: 9780671792251
ISBN-10: 0671792253
Publication Date: 10/1/1992
Pages: 208
Rating:
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 26

3.8 stars, based on 26 ratings
Publisher: Touchstone
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 4
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Class : A Guide Through the American Status System on
Helpful Score: 2
This book is a bit dated in it's points of reference, having been written in the early 80's, but it is highly informative. Fussell will make you self-conscious while reading it. I would suggest this book for anyone who considers their self a 'watcher of people'.

It's very interesting, but you should be an avid reader. The humor is sharp, but the book reads like a text-book at times. Not for the easily distracted.
paigu avatar reviewed Class : A Guide Through the American Status System on + 120 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Hilarious! You have to read this with a grain of salt. Not for the easily offended.
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reviewed Class : A Guide Through the American Status System on + 12 more book reviews
If I wrote that I grabbed this book, sat on the couch on my front porch because thats where the comfortable couch is, hung a pest strip to keep the bugs away, opened a Bud, and enjoyed this book, youd have a picture of me AND my class in your mind.
What if I told you I dont drink, my couch is in my living room surrounded by bookcases full of books Ive read and a few I have yet to read, Im a vegetarian who is working on her Masters in Rhetoric and Technical Communication, and I thoroughly enjoyed this work.
This is the point to Class. We all accidently judge and its not right, but we do it anyway. Fussell is over the top. I believe he has to be to make his point, a satirical point. Ive read several of his other works, and he is a man possessed with the study of rhetoric and how people, himself included, accidently let rhetoric make their minds up for them instead of using their critical thinking skills. Fussells examples are dated; however, we can all fill-in new examples.
A prime example is the iPhone. Look at the lines of people when a new iPhone comes out and most of these people have the previous addition. They are convinced they need this new device, but the fact is no matter what is added, it will still be just a phone.
We are a world obsessed with not only class and judging others but also a world obsessed with thinking our possessions make us who we are. I believe Fussell is following through on Dr. M. L. Kings message that the content of character is what should be important, and Fussell goes so over the top, satire, that we really end up thinking or re-thinking everything we think we know about ourselves and others.
Therefore I recommend this book because it touches on everything we think, see, and say.


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