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The Unconscious Treatment of Class Consciousness
For over three decades following World War II, the study of class consciousness in American society was constrained by two separate but not unrelated historical developments. The first was a Cold War imperative that rendered most Marxist-inspired theoretical conceptualization ideologically suspect and therefore unlikely to attract serious sociological treatment, particularly within the terms set by Marx's own analysis (Bottomore 1976). The second was American sociology's shift from its roots in Chicago School social anthropology toward the "Lazarsfeldian" research edifice that had begun to shape the discipline in profound ways (Boudon 1993).
In many respects Richard Centers's classic study (1949) was emblematic of these dual processes. Initially undertaken as a challenge to the findings of an earlier Fortune magazine survey that had found over 80% of the sample population identifying themselves as "middle class," Centers sought to demonstrate the existence of a significant working class consciousness in the United States. Adding the response "working class" to his survey of what was considered a nationally representative sample population (1097 white men), Centers found a sizeable portion (51%) registering under that label, thus offering empirical support to his euphemistically termed "interest group theory of social classes." Though some disputed his findings and interpretations (Gross 1953, Case 1955, Gordon 1963, Wilensky 1970), Centers's study served as a model for understanding the subjective dimensions of social class.
The specific methodologies have differed across a range of systematic data collection techniques, from self-administered questionnaires, to face-to-face interviews and telephone surveys, to analyses of election data. In general, however, quantitative methods that yield large data sets, utilize precise sampling techniques, and provide opportunities for statistical manipulation of the data have been strongly favored in the study of class consciousness in the United States. Though the amount of research in the United States has not been voluminous (Kerbo 1991:346-47, Gilbert & Kahl 1993:233), a substantial body of research has developed on class identification (Gross 1953, Kahl & Davis 1955, Tucker 1966, Hodge & Treiman 1968, Schreiber & Nygreen 1970, Jackman & Jackman 1983, Davis & Robinson 1988, Simpson et al 1988), on class attitudes (Eysenck 1950, Manis & Meltzer 1954, Leggett 1968, Wright 1985, Kluegel & Smith 1986), and on class political preferences and opinions (Lipset 1960,...