Posted on 07/15/2012 10:11:01 AM PDT by bunkerhill7
Of the 300+ books on google books using the term, "middle class America", only one earliest is 1971, a few in 1980`s and 95% in 1990`s and 2000`s til now.
I never heard the term "middle class Americans" in my youth, not even in college sociology classes in 1960`s. It appears to be a made-up-term borrowed from English social class structure as defined by Webster.
These communist sociologists try to force an Englsh social model upon America which is impossible- to make a square peg fit a round hole in an fallacious attempt to define a fluid social dynamic of American society as a static factor, which it is not.
These revisionist precaricators attempt to falsely tell us that other 18th century and 19th century authors wrote about the "American Middle class" yet it appears that I couldn`t find one instance of a direct quote using that term in those eras.
They are repeating this lie so often for so many years and teaching it in schools and colleges that everyone actually believes there is a static frozen American middle class , which there just ain`t. You can browse these volumes and see the communist propaganda there disguised as "class" this and "class" that which is a lie.
viz: "Karen Halttunen draws a vivid picture of the social and cultural development of the UPWARDLY MOBILE MIDDLE CLASS" [my caps],...1986, ;Confidence men and painted women:...'
Sorry Obummer but "middle class" is a term origninated in England to denote people bewtween the nobility and the working people.
Webster`s Dictionary definition of "middle class". p.532:
"In England, people who have an intermediate position between the nobility and or leisured class and the working class. It includes professional men, bankers, merchants, and small landed proprietors."
Googlebooks search 300+ examples after 1980`s etc except for one in 1971:
"The Emergence of the Middle Class: Social Experience in the ...
books.google.com Stuart M. Blumin - 1989 - 434 pages - Preview
====
"This book traces the emergence of the recongnizable 'middle class' from the 1760-1900."
Middle-class Blacks in a white society: Prince Hall Freemasonry in ...
================
"Children and arson: America's middle class nightmare"
books.google.comWayne S. Wooden, Martha Lou Berkey - 1984 - 267 pages - Snippet view =======================================================
"The cult of youth in middle-class America: Volume 69"
books.google.comRichard L. Rapson - 1971 - 118 pages - Snippet view
=====================
"Confidence men and painted women: a study of middle-class culture ...'
books.google.comKaren Halttunen - 1986 - 262 pages - Preview
"Karen Halttunen draws a vivid picture of the social and cultural development of the upwardly mobile middle class, basing her study on a survey of the conduct manuals and fashion magazines of mid-nineteenth-century America."
============================
"The aristocracy of labor: the position of skilled craftsmen in the ..."
books.google.comGavin Mackenzie - 1973 - 208 pages - Preview
"Dr Mackenzie's study is designed to test the common assertion in the press and in recent American academic sociology that the line separating the working class from the middle class is becoming increasingly blurred, leading to the ..."
====================== >p? "Work in America: A - M".: Volume 1 - Page 628
books.google.com2003 - 369 pages - Google eBook - Preview
'In Babbitt (1922),Lewis examines the unimaginative aspirations of the American middle class, the role work plays in defining white-collar worth,and the unending quest for profit and status'
=========================
books.google.comWilliam A. Muraskin - 1975 - 318 pages - Full view
source: https://www.google.com/search?q=middle+class+America&btnG=Search+Books&tbm=bks&tbo=1#q=middle+class+America&hl=en&safe=off&tbo=1&tbm=bks&ei=o-kCUPC8L7Ky0QGN2PzUBw&start=40&sa=N&fp=1&biw=1366&bih=540&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&cad=b&sei=WeQCUMboBcbf0QHb9uTBBw
The correct term to use is “Middle Income Americans”.
What you are doing is imagining there to be some sort of abrupt ending of England's influence and the beginning of America's influence on the English language ~ which we share with them.
We still have people who grovel at the sight of the Queen of England.
BTW, as best we try the English still have some influence on the shared tongue ~ probably always will have.
Do you speak English as your second, third or fourth language?
I beg to differ- one cannot change the meanings of words nor their entymology in a dictionary by whim- one cannot change the definition of male and female, up or down, black or white- It appears one lives in a bizarro world-
-Sorry but America was never divided into Uppper class, Upper Middle class, Middle class, lower middle , lower class- it`s a bumch of economic strata borrowed from England after the 1960`s and placed in sociology books and called American classes- ridiculous... When I was going to school we were just all Americans created equal. If you were born into a rich family, you were a rich kid. If you lived on the other side of the tracks you were a poor kid etc., but I never ever heard the terms middle class , lower class etc. These are terms made up after the 1960`s when I was in school.
Whose dictionary did one use, Oxford Dictionary of the English Language? LaRousse?? Bhasa ??
Usage of words change upon slang or the gutteral, not the dictionary definitions. That`s the job of a thesaurus, not a dictionary.
These [mostly] words in Webster`s dictionary originate from Latin and Greek, and one cannot change the meaning and the etymology of these Latin and Greek roots on any whim.
Twisting English etymology and the usurping of words to ascribe to non-existent imaginary conditions which are borrowed from another language/culture is called cross- glossification, similar to Mexican slang words appearing in US culture in latter half of the 20th Century and gutteral Chicano beinmg spoken in California which does not have the exactness of the spoken crisp Mexico City spanish...
Class distinctions belong in Europe from whence they came, not in the USA.
Poeple can create words but they cannot change the original meanings of words and their etymology. That is called revisionism.
Your statement/question [Do you speak English as your second, third or fourth language?]-
viz- I will not stoop to conquer nor dignify the latter as evidently one has to stray from facts on a whim to leave the argument hanging like an apple on a non-objective tree.
I beg your pardon, Webster`s dictionary DOES have the authority in schools as to the learning and looking up of words and their meanings. I had to buy a Webster`s dictionary in high school as THE reference book for English classes, as with my french class, “dictionnaire francais larousse”.
This country consisted initially of several British colonies. The classes didn't change their stripes just because they moved here.
Then, there was slavery. Yup ~ call it what you want, but that was a LEGALLY ESTABLISHED CASTE.
Webster's is not an authority with permanent binding power ~ it's just a list of words and suggested definitions.
Users of words adjust working definitions to fit conditions. No dictionary can hold back the power of the marketplace.
Then, I actually assisted in the development of the dictionary for Bahasa Indonesia.
Sir, just get a copy of the 1887 Webster`s dictionary and go to page 532 -you will read the definition of middle class=
“middle class -In England,
people who have an intermediate position bewtween the nobility and or
leisured class and the working class. It includes professional men, bankers,
merchants, and small landed proprietors.”
No such similar “middle class” exists in the United States which does not a have nobility.
My family was around-
BTW my family has been here since 1648 and my great grandparents, my grandparents, my parents, all never uttered those words to to me in their lives. They would say “down and out”, “in the poorhouse”, etc. but never say a worded phrase such as lower class or middle class- It was foreign to them because, indeed, it is a FOREIGN PHRASE OR TERM, does not apply to the USA, only England, from whence it came.
Sorry- one does not have to stoop- If am nuts then in 1887 Webster was also nuts coz he wrote the definition of “middle class” on p.532 as a social term used in ENGLAND, not the USA..
Terima Khasi no Gelak Saya mau boolong hahah.
As it is the word "middle" and the word "class" have been around for a very, very, very, very long time!
The British middle class was the educated, professional, well-to-do bourgeoisie: the class of wealthy, non-titled achievers that was always "rising" in British history.
In the US, "middle class" meant people who were neither very rich nor very poor, in other words almost everybody. As far back as the 18th century it was common to speak of the "middling sort" or the yeoman farmers.
The British middle class contrasted itself with the nobility on the one hand and the working classes on the other. America's middle class excluded the very rich and the very poor.
What the "working class" was over here and whether you could work with your hands and be "middle class" were things we didn't much get into. If you had a job you qualified as "middle class," at least by many accounts.
You are actually right in a way. Most 19th century American references to the "middle class" or "middle classes" have to do with England (or Europe), rather than America. But those Americans weren't looking at their own society and possible divisions.
When they did start to look around at their own country with the same eyes they looked at Britain or Europe with, it was inevitable that they'd apply similar categories to US society, but they were aware of the differences as well.
You or I don't have to be "social scientists" or use words as they do. But if somebody sets himself or herself up as a "social scientist" they aren't going to say that "class" and "caste" are something other countries have, while everything is hunky-dory with us, and we don't have to categorize or label anything about us or distinguish differences between us. Applying those terms where they might fit and drawing possible distinctions goes with the job, like it or not.
Usage always changes a bit with time. You find a few more people here using the word in the British sense, but I'm not aware of any major revolution in usage over the course of the 20th century. "Middle class" has meant, not starving, not on welfare, but not independently wealthy for as long as I can remember.
All words are "made up" in some sense, and any attempt to categorize people by class is going to be disputed. You can categorize them as you wish and use or avoid terminology as you please. But I doubt throwing around the communist label is going to make anything clearer or more precise.
Bob Segar was singing about the U.M.C. (Upper Middle Class) on 1974’s Seven album, which was recorded in ‘73.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_%28Bob_Seger_album%29
If a working class rocker from the Midwest was obviously very familiar with the concept of the middle class in that time frame, why wouldn’t everyone else be?
My name is not Jack.
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