The Status Seekers
by Vance Packard
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Description
IS AMERICA A CLASSLESS SOCIETY? No! says best-selling author Vance Packard in this scorching investigation of the status and class structure of our society. The car you drive, the church you attend, where you went to school, the house you live in---even your choice of words---are brandings of your place in society. This is your status---and you me be stuck with it, like it or not. The author minces no words in letting the reader know exactly who he is, how he measures up, where he is likely show more to go---and where, because of society's harsh rules, he is not likely to go. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
It is interesting that this book can still easily be found, and I am thankful for that. American society is behaving pretty normally for the condition of being the foremost power in the world, economically and culturally. In recent times, the French, British and Americans have all made a stab at being the center of the "Universe", and sadly a good many details of its process still resemble the portrait drawn by this observer from the 1950's.
Must have been thirty years ago I read this, but I remember liking it. I remember being impressed by how it casually and effortlessly this book described all of our (westerners') status seeking behaviours; how society's structures came to be formed from our status-seeking traits.
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Publisher's Weekly NON-Fiction list - 1912 - 1975
486 works; 4 members
Author Information
20+ Works 2,229 Members
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Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1959
- Epigraph
- "You!" said the Caterpillar contemptuously. "Who are you/".
--Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland - Dedication
- For Randall, Cynthia, and Vance who will live in this world we are creating
- First words
- What happens to class distinctions among people when most of them are enjoying a long period of material abundance?
- Quotations*
- "You!" said the Caterpillar contemptuously. "Who are you/".
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)They must be genuinely convinced that our system offers fairer rewards and opportunities for the fulfillment of human aspiration than any other.
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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- Members
- 354
- Popularity
- 88,704
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.80)
- Languages
- 5 — English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian (Bokmål)
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 27
