Class Lives: Stories from Across Our Economic Divide(A Class Action Book)

Class Lives is an anthology of narratives dramatizing the lived experience of class in America. It includes forty original essays from authors who represent a range of classes, genders, races, ethnicities, ages, and occupations across the United States. Born into poverty, working class, the middle class, and the owning class-and every place in between-the contributors describe their class journeys in narrative form, recounting one or two key stories that illustrate their growing awareness of class and their place, changing or stable, within the class system. The stories in Class Lives are both gripping and moving. One contributor grows up in hunger and as an adult becomes an advocate for the poor and homeless. Another acknowledges the truth that her working-class father's achievements afforded her and the rest of the family access to people with power. A gifted child from a working-class home soon understands that intelligence is a commodity but finds his background incompatible with his aspirations and so attempts to divide his life into separate worlds. Together, these essays form a powerful narrative about the experience of class and the importance of learning about classism, class cultures, and the intersections of class, race, and gender. Class Lives will be a helpful resource for students, teachers, sociologists, diversity trainers, activists, and a general audience. It will leave readers with an appreciation of the poignancy and power of class and the journeys that Americans grapple with on a daily basis.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Caviar, College, Coupons, and Cheese by Felice Yeskel PART I. POOR AND LOW INCOME Cleaning Up the Trash: Fighting Shame by Linda Stout North American Peasant by Fisher Lavell I Work with Worn-Out Tools by Janet Lightfoot Mexican Girl from Fontana by Geneva Reynaga-Abiko What They Say about Poor Girls by Stephanie Jones Better Than by Patience Rage No Yellow Tickets: The Stigma of Poverty in the School Lunch Line by Wendy Williams PART II. WORKING CLASS Reflections Those of Us from Rio Linda by Dwight Lang The Cost of Passing by John Rosario-Perez The Floors of the Met by Karen Estrella Washroom Class Politics by Timothy Harris Artichokes by N. Jeanne Burns Here's How to Drive the Poor Crazy by Michaelann Bewsee Red Datsun Security by Karen Spector Working Class and College A Box from My Grandfather by Janet Casey Vacuum Cleaner Truth by Sierra Fleenor I Am Working Class by Michelle M. Tokarczyk Hitting the Academic Class Ceiling by K. Stricker Blue-Collar Heart, Ivy League World by Jennifer O'Connor Duffy Between Scarcity and Plenty by Camisha Jones A Nuyorican's Journey to Higher Education: Toward Meritocracy or Internalized Classism? by Jim Bonilla My Parents' Hands Are on My Back by Christine Overall PART III. MIDDLE CLASS "Better Be Street": My Adventures in Cross-Class Romance by Polly Trout It's Who You Know and How You Talk by Betsy Leondar-Wright Childhood Friendship: When Class Didn't Matter by Pamela Burrows Finding Myself in the Middle by Monica Crumback A Privileged Path in a Class-Shattered World by Anne Ellinger Oreo?: A Black American Experience by John Vaughn Class Is Always with Us by Kyle Harris PART IV. OWNING CLASS Born on Third Base by Chuck Collins Money Was Never a Worry by Catherine Orland The Women Who Cared for My Grandparents by Sarah Burgess What Was It Like Growing Up Owning-Class? by Jennifer Ladd A Day of Traveling across the Class Spectrum by Charlotte Redway Social Capital by Sally Gottesman PART V. MIXED CLASS Coming Clean by April Rosenblum Ferragamos: A Cross-Class Experience by Zoe Greenberg Girl Scout Green by Mariah Boone Living beyond Class: My Journey from Haiti to Harvard by Jacques Fleury Afterword: The Power of Story by Chuck Collins About the Contributors Resources About Class Action

About the Author :
Chuck Collins is a board member at Class Action and a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies. He is the author most recently of 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It. Jennifer Ladd is cofounder of Class Action Maynard Seider, author of A Year in the Life of a Factory, has retired as a Professor of Sociology at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. The late Felice Yeskel was cofounder of Class Action.

Review :
"It does a good job of highlighting the implicit class biases and prejudices that often infect progressive movements and institutions, limiting their popular appeal and undercutting their stated commitment to inclusion and diversity. The book's compassionate and inclusive ethos, and its detailed consideration of complex ways that class inflects the whole spectrum of identity and everyday experience, offers a welcome respite from the sanctimonious hothouse of much contemporary liberal identity politics." -Dennis Soron, Labour/Le Travail (Spring 2016) "The stories in Class Lives all engage the reader at a directly personal level that both stimulates and guides self-reflection on the role of class and the awareness of class in one's own life. The overall class framework-poor, working class, middle class, and owning class-is intuitively compelling in itself, and the individual essays bring that framework to life in a way that is even more compelling and memorable."-Jack Metzgar, Roosevelt University, author of Striking Steel: Solidarity Remembered "Class Lives addresses the forbidden subject on the U.S. landscape: class. But it does so through the narratives of a spectrum of writers who examine-indeed, interrogate-their own experiences in order to make sense of their backgrounds, their challenges, their successes, and their worldviews. This deeply personal collection takes issues of class and class struggle off the shelf of both academia and social struggle and situates them in the context of living the real contradictions of the real USA. I was drawn into this volume from the very opening pages."-Bill Fletcher Jr., author of "They're Bankrupting Us"-and Twenty Other Myths about Unions "Too often, 'class' is viewed as a concept without meaning or impact. Class Lives demonstrates through powerful stories how we are all impacted by the challenges (for the poor) and opportunities (for the rich) imposed on us by class. Pushing against class barriers is critical for those who care about justice and fairness. This book will help us all."-Kim Bobo, Executive Director, Interfaith Worker Justice "In a sad world where our class origins matter more and more, it is useful to have these candid stories about exactly how they matter, from thoughtful people who have devoted their lives to combating injustice."-James M. Jasper, author of Protest: A Cultural Introduction to Social Movements "Among the many things that shape our movements, the class identities of principal players are among the least examined. In this insightful book, dozens of authors share heartfelt stories of their struggles with and consciousness around class. Class Lives takes class from a social taboo and brings it to life." -Rinku Sen, President of Race Forward: The Center for Racial Justice Innovation and Publisher of Colorlines