Class Unknown

Since the Gilded Age, social scientists, middle-class reformers, and writers have left the comforts of their offices to "pass" as steel workers, coal miners, assembly-line laborers, waitresses, hoboes

Since the Gilded Age, social scientists, middle-class reformers, and writers have left the comforts of their offices to "pass" as steel workers, coal miners, assembly-line laborers, waitresses, hoboes

A look at poor and working-class young adults goes beyond the stereotypical conception of "Generation X-ers" and examines the lives and viewpoints of hundreds of young adults ages twenty-three to thir

One night a white rabbit glimpses a ballet class in progress, and is enchanted. She gathers her courage and asks if she may join the class. Soon, other friends join too, and learn – along with classical ballet – that being true to yourself can be beautiful. A heartwarming story about having the courage to step into unknown worlds.

This book explores why it is white ethnicity has been rendered invisible, arguing that contemporary people's conceptions of themselves are conditioned by, and derive from, the unknown and forgotten le

Despite his role as central organizer of the Revolutionary Stewards,’ and the impact of the mass strikes they led between 1916 and 1918, today Richard Muller is largely unknown. Using new archival sou

The first book to focus on California architect Gregory Ain’s housing projects, which featured open kitchens, movable walls, and other design innovations.The Southern California architect Gregory Ain (1908–1988) collaborated with some of the most celebrated figures of midcentury design, including Rudolph Schindler, Richard Neutra, and Charles and Ray Eames, and yet is relatively unknown today. Ain’s architectural work in the 1930s and 1940s was shaped by his radical politics; J. Edgar Hoover called him “the most dangerous architect in America.” Although Ain designed many private homes for wealthy liberals, he was more interested in finding ways to produce high-quality, low-cost houses in well-designed neighborhood settings for working-class families. This is the first book to focus on these innovative housing projects and examne the way they synthesized Ain’s architectural and political ideals. The book presents historical black-and-white photographs by the celebrated photographer of

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the internal migration of a growing population transformed Britain into a 'society of strangers'. The coming and going of so many people wreaked havoc on the institutions through which Britons had previously addressed questions of collective responsibility. Poor relief, charity briefs, box clubs, and the like relied on personal knowledge of reputations for their effectiveness and struggled to accommodate the increasing number of unknown migrants. Trust among Strangers re-centers problems of trust in the making of modern Britain and examines the ways in which upper-class reformers and working-class laborers fashioned and refashioned the concept and practice of friendly society to make promises of collective responsibility effective - even among strangers. The result is a profoundly new account of how Britons navigated their way into the modern world.

The true story of an all-American girl and a boy from Zimbabwe and the letter that changed both of their lives forever.It started as an assignment. Everyone in Caitlin's class wrote to an unknown stud

Since his death in 1989, it has become difficult to imagine that Samuel Beckett was once a virtually unknown writer. Born in 1906 into a respectable middle-class family in a Dublin suburb, he came lat

For some unknown reason, Peter Altschul was born totally blind. He grew up in a working-class town where, with the help of his persistent mother, he broke through barrier after barrier, determined to

For some unknown reason, Peter Altschul was born totally blind. He grew up in a working-class town where, with the help of his persistent mother, he broke through barrier after barrier, determined to

This book is concerned not so much with the 'prima donna' as with prime donne: a group of working artists (sometimes famous but more often relatively unknown and now long forgotten) and the circumstances of their professional lives. It attempts to locate these singers within a broader history, including not only the specificities of operatic stage practice but the life beyond the opera house - the social, cultural and political framing that shaped individual experience, artistic endeavour and audience reception. Rutherford addresses questions such as the multiple discourses on the image of the singer and their impact on the changing profile of the professional artist from figlia dell'arte at the beginning of the era to middle-class woman at the end; the aspect of the 'stage mother' and patronage; issues of vocal training and tuition; professional life in the operatic market-place; and performance (both vocal and dramatic) conventions and practices.

If any film has gone the distance, it's Rocky (1976), which spawned one of the longest running franchises in film history. Released in America's bicentennial year, Rocky, based on an original screenplay by then-unknown writer and actor Sylvester Stallone, surprised everyone. Shot on a shoestring budget by director John Avildsen, the film became a blockbuster and Academy Award-winning best picture and spawned a lucrative franchise, as well as spin-offs. Rocky propelled the careers of Sylvester Stallone and Talia Shire, generated an interest in boxing and sports movies, and placed Philadelphia and its architecture in the popular consciousness. However, Rocky has always been a contested text, raising questions about race, gender, and class in America, as well as debate about genre, storytelling, and film art--questions which are addressed at length in this rich collection of essays. As this collection shows, Rocky and its sequels retain their power to rouse audiences well into the twenty-