Description
In Bridging the Divide, Jack Metzgar attempts to determine the differences between working-class and middle-class cultures in the United States. Drawing on a wide range of multidisciplinary sources, Metzgar writes as a now middle-class professional with a working-class upbringing, explaining the various ways the two cultures conflict and complement each other, illustrated by his own lived experiences.
Set in a historical framework that reflects on how both class cultures developed, adapted, and survived through decades of historical circumstances, Metzgar challenges professional middle-class views of both the working-class and themselves. In the end, he argues for the creation of a cross-class coalition of what he calls "standard-issue professionals" with both hard-living and settled-living working people and outlines some policies that could help promote such a unification if the two groups had a better understanding of their differences and how to use those differences to their advantage.
Bridging the Divide mixes personal stories and theoretical concepts to give us a compelling look inside the current complex position of the working-class in American culture and a view of what it could be in the future.
Author: Jack Metzgar
Publisher: ILR Press
Published: 11/15/2021
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 9.20h x 8.00w x 0.90d
ISBN13: 9781501760310
ISBN10: 1501760319
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Minority Studies
- Social Science | Social Classes & Economic Disparity
- Business & Economics | Labor | General
About the Author
Jack Metzgar is Professor Emeritus at Roosevelt University. He is author of Striking Steel.