The Working Class Majority: America's Best Kept Secret (ILR Press Book)

Customer Reviews:

Good Point...........2005-06-09

Zweig makes a really good point. Whereas society determine the classes based on a family's income and their possesions he breaks it down to three main classes, the Capitalists class, the middle class(which includes lawyers, doctors, financial analysts and etc..) to the working class shich can include workers who may make more than those of the middle class. For example, a lawyer or a doctor fresh out of school will make the same amount of money for the first couple of years as a union worker or even more. Lawyers, doctors ect. are placed in the middle class because of their title and education, not their income.
This book opens up your eyes and makes you see things in a clear and broader sense.

The only negative, I am not comfortable with his writing. There are times he presents one topic and goes off in a tangent the next two lines.

We're all working class....mostly........2005-04-28

This is excellent book that really triggers thought about the distribution of wealth and power in the United States as it is now. Most workers see themselves as "middle class" instead of "working class". Basically, the point of this book is that when the majority of the working class--people Zweig describes as having minimal control over what they do at work (not just factory workers)--they lose the ability to pool their political power and use it to reform the economic system in their favor.

Taking the power back!.......2004-10-28

"The Working Class Majority" came out at a time when formidable economic forces, such as corporate mergers, globalization, recessions, and tax-cuts for the wealthy, had been punishing the American working class with unprecedented impunity, a phenomenon that has forced politicians, media, and learning institutions to intensify their efforts to deflect people's attention from whatever gets them to talk about social classes. Such a concept many thought died with the Berlin Wall and the anachronism of the Soviet system, not to mention the American labor's hey-day before and during the Depression, but Zweig contends that whether it has been in the past or the present, knowledge of class relations has proved paramount to understand how society really functions.

In his class relations study, Zweig found that the United States is neither a 'class-less' country, as the most enthusiasts picture it, nor is it predominantly middle-class, with few prominences as Bill Gates and Ross Perot at the top and few lazy, welfare-supported people, sometimes called the 'underclass,' at the bottom. Instead, the majority of Americans are in the working class, which Zweig estimates makes up 62 percent of the U.S. workforce.

By giving an alternative to the conventional definition of classes, Zweig's thesis mantains that is not solely income and living standards what determines the social position of people in society but rather to what extent they participate (power) in setting the pace and priorities at the workplace and how much they can influence the decision-making process of producing goods and providing services. In other words, the role at the workplace and the means by which an income is earned to afford a certain living standard, Zweig argues, is what defines a person's class.

Zweig divides social classes in the United States into three layers: the capitalist class, or big business layer, the managerial class, and the working class, which makes up the majority of Americans. Zweig separates these three main classes and provides detailed, yet easy-to-grasp analyses about their various subdivisions and roles in society. By adding multiple government and independent sources as well as statistics on U.S. labor and business, Zweig arrives at the conclusion that the majority of Americans are in the working class.
Zweig's book is a wake-up call for the most under-reported, yet largest segment of the population. It is a must-read for all citizens who still believe that cementing a strong working-class culture helps to strenghten democracy in our society.

Best book on US Social Classes in the last Decade.......2002-06-01

Zweig's book is an empirical and analytical tour de force. In rigorous fashion he outlines the current class structure of the US in terms of power and control in the workplace. He proves the continuing relevance of class analysis in an era when most Americans consider themselves middle class, and he aptly describes the class war which the "ruling elite" has been precipitating on the working class. The book is clearly written and convincingly argued, and should be accessible to a wide audience.

America's Best Kept Conspiracy Theory.......2001-12-28

If one defines premises the way one wants, one can come to almost any conclusion.

This book asserts that anyone who isn't a manager, professional or entrepeneur is part of the "working class," with all the historical baggage the term carries. Since the author defines the "working class" in such a way that it is the majority of the population, and since it doesn't vote the way the author believes it should, there must be a conspiracy that uses a variety of malign tools to deprive this majority of its right to redistribute the goodies to itself.

This bit of semantic legerdemain permits the author to ignore the economic and social miracle which has occurred in the U.S. and most of the West in the last century: In 1900 the vast, vast majority of us lived in what we would today consider to be dire poverty. Now, almost all of us enjoy a level of wealth, security, leisure...and autonomy...that our great grandparents only saw in their dreams.

Zweig disparages the system that produced this result...and can't explain why it did not occur in the workers' paradise which took his ideas a bit too literally.

There will always be people who can't see the empirical evidence that's right before their eyes. Fortunately, when they publish their views, the reading public generally conspires to keep their ideas a well kept secret.

Average customer rating:
Class, Political Economy, and institutionalism: toward a rapprochement?(Book Review) (book review): An article from: Journal of Economic Issues
Janet T. Knoedler , and Geoffrey E. Schneider
Manufacturer: Association for Evolutionary Economics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008FQL96
Release Date: 2005-07-30

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of Economic Issues, published by Association for Evolutionary Economics on December 1, 2002. The length of the article is 2936 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Class, Political Economy, and institutionalism: toward a rapprochement?(Book Review) (book review)
Author: Janet T. Knoedler
Publication: Journal of Economic Issues (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 2002
Publisher: Association for Evolutionary Economics
Volume: 36 Issue: 4 Page: 1111(6)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

The Working Class Majority: America's Best Kept Secret.(Review): An article from: Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations

Average customer rating:

The Working Class Majority: America's Best Kept Secret.(Review): An article from: Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations
Frank Emspak
Manufacturer: Relations Industrielles
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008JADFU
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations, published by Relations Industrielles on September 22, 2000. The length of the article is 1397 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Working Class Majority: America's Best Kept Secret.(Review)
Author: Frank Emspak
Publication: Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2000
Publisher: Relations Industrielles
Volume: 55 Issue: 4 Page: 795

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

The Time Management Effectiveness Profile assesses an individual's existing capacity to manage his or her time efficiently and highlights specific areas where improvement might be possible.

The facilitator guide provides everything required to fully utilize this assessment within an organization and with groups.

Book Description

Everyone needs reliable access to safe, appropriate and healthy food; yet despite regular public pronouncements and apparent commitments by states and institutions, the reality is very different for many consumers in both rich and poor countries. This book explains why, looking at the role of food in contemporary policy, in the UK, Europe and internationally. The contributions challenge (or provide a challenge to) state, institutional and agency structures and responses to this critical issue. The book opens up new areas in social policy, providing a comprehensive and readable account of key current issues: food rights, patenting, safety, aid, choice and poverty.Food concerns are easily relegated to the private, domestic arena. This volume shows where the real powers lie, and provides some means for redressing the balance.

Perspectives in World Food Agriculture (Perspectives in World Food and Agriculture)

Average customer rating:

Perspectives in World Food Agriculture (Perspectives in World Food and Agriculture)
Colin G. Scanes
Manufacturer: Blackwell Publishing Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

Biotechnology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Crop Science | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0813820316

Book Description

This is the second volume in a series designed to keep the agricultural leaders of today and tomorrow in both industry and academe abreast of the latest, most up-to-date information concerning global agriculture. Written by internationally renowned researchers, scientists, and academics, Perspectives in World Food and Agriculture, Volume 2 brings together cutting-edge agricultural research and the most current views of agricultural policy, including:Global agricultural statistics and projectionsThe UN 's approaches to address global food security and povertyAn essay by the World Food LaureateTrends in agricultural policies, food safety, and biosecurityGlobalization, emerging diseases, and invasive speciesEthics of agricultural researchSuccesses in developing biorenewablesOrganic foodThe future of agricultural biotechnologyNutrigenomics and/or metabolomicsThe pivotal role of agriculture in human developmentResearchers and research libraries alike will appreciate the Frontiers sections, which deliver reports on the latest breakthroughs in agriculture research. Aimed at faculty, undergraduate and graduate students in colleges of agriculture, policy makers, government and industry scientists, public libraries, farmers and agribusiness operators, this book is the key to keeping current on agricultural research and policy.

World Crops: Cool Season Food Legumes: A global perspective of the problems and prospects for crop improvement in pea, lentil, faba bean and chickpea (Current ... Science and Biotechnology in Agriculture)

Average customer rating:

World Crops: Cool Season Food Legumes: A global perspective of the problems and prospects for crop improvement in pea, lentil, faba bean and chickpea (Current ... Science and Biotechnology in Agriculture)

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Fruit | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Vegetables | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Issues in world agriculture: A U.S. perspective (Reprint)

Average customer rating:

Issues in world agriculture: A U.S. perspective (Reprint)
John Williams Mellor
Manufacturer: International Food Policy Research Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Agricultural | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B00073CDXM

World food: A perspective (Cornell international agricultural reprint)

Average customer rating:

World food: A perspective (Cornell international agricultural reprint)
Thomas T Poleman
Manufacturer: American Association for the Advancement of Science
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Human Geography | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Agricultural | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000733M3M

Book Description

This volume presents the lecture notes of the 24th Advanced Course of the Swiss Society for Astrophysics and Astronomy in March 1994 at Les Diablerets. In three lectures on magnetohydrodynamics, on kinetic plasma physics and on particle acceleration leading experts describe the physical basis of their subjects and extend the discussion to several applications in modern problems of astrophysics. In style and presentation the texts are well-suited for graduate work in plasma astrophysics, one of the very important tools of modern astronomy. The themes developed in this book will be helpful in understanding many processes in the universe from the solar corona to active galaxies.

Book Description

Stephen Paddock and a highly skilled panel of experts lead the researcher using confocal techniques from the bench top, through the imaging process, to the journal page. They concisely describe all the key stages of confocal imaging-from tissue sampling methods, through the staining process, to the manipulation, presentation, and publication of the realized image. Written in a user-friendly, nontechnical style, the methods specifically cover most of the commonly used model organisms: worms, sea urchins, flies, plants, yeast, frogs, and zebrafish. The powerful hands-on methods collected here will help even the novice to produce first-class cover-quality confocal images.

Book Description

These are the newest designs added to the series. These popular books contain details usualy found with study plans: hull dimensions, displacement, sail area, construction methods and level of skill needed to build.

Customer Reviews:

Not really worth it........2006-11-10

Unfortunately, with the advent of the interweb / internet, this book is rather obsolete, I would have returned it but would rather keep it than pay the postage back.

Substantially more information is available on even the worst boat building web site.

Even if you're just trying to fill your shelves with books, I'd still find a better book or print out some web pages instead, you'd be better off.

should be called "A Book of Dreams".......1997-06-29

If there's nothing so worth doing as messing about on boats, looking at a book of study plans surely comes in near the top. WoodenBoats has compiled a(nother) set of intriguing drawings and lines which have me turning page after page, thinking about the possibilities for building my own boat. I may never actually build any of the boats shown in this book, but I've gotten tremendous enjoyment -- and learned a great deal about the various types of boat hulls, rigs and construction -- while perusing the pages. The only problem is that forty boats isn't enough

Book Description

Need directions to Dublin? Learn to speak Irish.

With Teach Yourself it's possible for virtually anyone to learn and experience the languages of the world, from Afrikaans to Zulu; Ancient Greek to Modern Persian; Beginner's Latin to Biblical Hebrew. Follow any of the Teach Yourself Language Courses Audiopacks at your own pace or use them as a supplement to formal courses. These complete courses are professionally designed for self-guided study, making them one of the most enjoyable and easy to use language courses you can find. Audiopacks include an instructional paperback book and two companion 60-minute audio CDs.

Prepared by experts in the language, each course begins with the basics and gradually promotes the student to a level of smooth and confident communication, including:

Step-by-step guide to pronunciation and grammar
Regular and irregular verb tables
Plenty of practice exercises and answers
Practical vocabulary and a bilingual glossary
Clear, uncluttered, and user-friendly layout
An exploration of the culture
And much more

Customer Reviews:

Not a Serious Text.......2006-08-30

If I was planning a short vacation in the Gaeltacht and made a decision to use Irish as much as possible, this text may have sufficed. Peculiarly, in some ways it seems to treat Irish as one might treat Chinese, Russian or Italian. One has to have a very specific interest in Gaeilge in order to want to use it in Ireland, as there are effectively no monoglots, and this book does not lay out how its students ought to utilize the text in order to embrace the Irish language in the unusual state it is in.

One of the things I cannot get past is the pronunciation guide. Unthorough and confusing, I found myself continually frustrated at not knowing how to pronounce the words as I continued with the lessons, even though I went through the pronunciation guide (with the CDs!) three or four times.

Next, how does one treat the chapters? Memorize each dialogue? And there is integrated grammar, but it is presented then forgotten in the exercises. Simple grammar features had me baffled, which I felt should have been explained. I am not a linguist, but I certainly understand language structure and terminology, so why do I still find Irish as illusive and vexing as ever?

I give it two stars because it could be useful if you are visiting a Gaeltacht and want to have a stock of memorized phrases at your disposal. Or maybe it is just not suited toward how I learn a language. I have tried to milk everything I could out of it, and I even bought "Teach Yourself Irish Grammar" as a supplement. Hopefully I will have more luck with "Learning Irish." I am not giving up though. The Irish language is truly worth all the headaches it gives. Rath Dé oraibh.

Too Confusing, Too Fast.......2006-07-17

Perhaps I just learn differently, but for me, this set does not work. For one thing, the c.d. has people shouting off Irish words in such quick succession that there is no time to repeat what they are saying. I suppose this cd could be useful if a person played it while they slept, but it is not a good program for those who learn languages by repetition.

Teach Yourself Irish Complete Course, CD package.......2005-12-07

Lots of information but in obfuscated format. Auditory is good, needs visuals, more conversations, fewer translations.

Teach Yourself Irish Complete Course, CD package.......2005-08-02

THIS IS EVERYTHING WE WERE HOPING IT WOULD BE IN TRYING TO LEARN A NEW LANGUAGE.

A decent start, but lacking.......2005-06-23

I used this system as my second attempt to teach myself Irish, but like the previous course I followed, this one failed me. There are lots of exercises and cute culture notes in each chapter, and the vocabularies are decent. However, this book lacks thorough grammar explanations. Once I got into the 6th lesson, I was having questions about different usages that the book simply didn't answer. It tended to brush over most grammar points to teach you the absolute basics.

This book is good for a tourist who wants to spend a few days in an Irish speaking area, but is terrible for the serious student.

Book Description

Henry Gee, Senior editor for what many have called the most important magazine in science today - Nature - has written a spellbinding, fun, and accessible book explaining the scientific basis for how all that wizardy, sorcery, and magic really works in JRR Tolkien's fantasy epic, The Lord of the Rings and his other fictional books featuring Middle-earth. The author explores just how elves might be able to see much further than humans, why Frodo's sword turns blue at the sight of evil orcs, how the rings of power do their thing, and just about every other conundrum or piece of 'elvish magic' that have puzzled and delighted Tolkien fans for years. Throughout, Gee makes the point that science, fantasy , and nature are really more similar than one might think. Gee writes in a popular tone and style, fully explaining all science concepts and convincingly demonstrating how Tolkien's world of fantasy makes sense in a very real - scientific - way.

Customer Reviews:

The physics is not very good...........2006-05-21

I think Gee deserves some credit for trying to imagine explanations for the phenomena of Tolkien's world, but unfortunately he seems to have spent more time lining up promoters of his book (lots of back-slappers in the early pages) than reviewers, at least of the physics. I would have thought that an editor at Nature would have a few contacts willing to spend a few hours looking for bloopers.

Here are the ones I noticed:
- In "The Eyes of Legolas Greenleaf", Gee discusses the difference in visual capabilities between elvish eyes and human eyes, as revealed in a few incidents of the LoR. Most of this is interesting. It is a bit flawed by his mistake that the way to explain the difference between human and elvish visual acuity is in the difference in FOCAL LENGTH. He asserts that the focal length of elvish eyes must be greater than that of human eyes, in order to give greater magnification. However, if this were true, elvish eyes would have to larger (longer) by a factor of about 12x60/8 = 90, and so would elvish heads. This would really distort the story! A more promising place to look would be in a greater density of rods & cones in the eye, although a factor of 90 is still pretty challenging.

- "In the Laboratory of Feanor", Gee speculates that the mechanism of the Palantiri (crystal balls for remote viewing & communication) could be explained by quantum entanglement: a remote linkage among the Palantiri which causes each one of them to reflect the state of the others. It sounds really cute, but unfortunately it is too cute: It is one of the interesting facts about quantum entanglement that it can be used to correlate statistical results at two ends, but that this correlation can only be verified after the data are brought together. Quantum entanglement cannot be used to send information (such as a signal): if it could, this would enable a violation of causality, within the context of special relativity, TODAY, even before anyone gets around to making crystal balls out of it!

Actually, I don't know why Gee is working so hard on this one: Given that we have telecommunications devices today, and long-life batteries, it is not much of a stretch to imagine a technology that would carry signals for Palantiri. The main issue seems to be the user interface: How do I impose my will on its display? Quantum entanglement won't help on that, either.

- As Jay Moore points out in another review, there is a problem in "Giant Spiders and 'Mammoth' Oliphaunts": I think the source of the problem is that Gee's using M to denote mass when he's thinking about size, which should be proportional to the 3rd-root of mass. But he's not consistent, so it screws up all his equations. Anyway, his argument on metabolism is generally unclear: He should have looked at D'Arcy Thompson's "On Growth and Form" to find out how to do these sorts of calculations intelligibly.

Basically, Gee's background seems to be in evolutionary zoology, not in physics, so one should perhaps be a bit forgiving about mistakes. However, as someone well-connected in the realm of scientific writing, he should not have too many difficulties in finding someone more competent to spend a few hours to find mistakes at this level; so one should not be TOO forgiving!

Oh, well, it's still fun. The single best section, in my opinion, is the attempt to explain how mithril could be so light and still be able to hold back the spear of a troll. An obvious omission would be some speculation on the nature of the capabilities of the wizards: Are they purely supernatural, or is some technological component worth considering? Of course, we know that Saruman had technological interests - but what about Gandalf?

Factual errors spoil the fun.......2005-05-12

That the author of this book is also an editor for the journal Nature is quite disturbing given the many factually wrong statements he makes. Most egregious is a mathematical blunder that claims M squared divided by M cubed equals M to the two-thirds power ( M^2/M^3=M^(2/3) ); he should have learned in eighth grade that the proper equivalence is 1/M. A close second is the statement that the african elephant is the "largest mammal alive today," forgetting that the blue whale is an order of magnitude larger; "largest land mammal" is the correct statement. This is both bad science and bad editing, quite frightful as the output of a science editor. In areas such as optics where I know a great deal, I found other similar factual problems, which cast great doubt in my mind about the validity of his statements in areas such as the life sciences where I know much less.

Better done, this could have been quite a good book. It must, of course, be read in the proper spirit. The point is not to find the real-world science Tolkein used to order his world (since he clearly did not do so), but to play a fun game of matching up current scientific knowledge to phenomena in Middle-Earth. That the author often gets the science wrong, however, largely spoils the game.

If you are still undeterred and wish to try it for yourself, I recommend skimming or skipping entirely the frst few chapters, which are bafflingly irrelevant.

CAN BALROGS FLY?.......2005-02-26

Only hard-core Tolkien fans will enjoy this book in its entirety, but it nevertheless offers useful insights into Tolkien's writing and the factors that influenced it.

Gee, a senior editor of Nature, rejects the notion that Tolkien was a Luddite. He says Tolkien distinguished between benign science and science put to perverse uses, i.e. to achieve power over others. In his view, Tolkien's academic discipline, philology,was as rigorous as the sciences. Gee demonstrates that Tolkien was conversant with contemporary scientific thought and was a reader of early science fiction writers like H G Wells and John Wyndham.

Gee devotes most of the book to looking at possible scientific explanations for phenomena like the source of a dragon's fire, the composition of mithril, the propagation of orcs, etc. This may be an entertaining parlor game for the initiates, but it is heavy going for the casual reader of Tolkien.

I think Gee's most valuable contribution to our understanding of Tolkien is a literary observation he offers, almost as an afterthought, near the end of the book. He writes about the over-arching "sense of loss" that pervades all of Tolkien's fiction, even in its most triumphal moments. For Tolkien there was no "final" victory, just a series of rearguard struggles that exact a cost on the winners as well as the losers. It is this melancholy leitmotif that elevates Lord of the Rings out of the sword and sorcery genre into the realm of literature.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books