Includes index.

Contents: An Introduction to the study of social inequality: Major issues in the study of social inequality -- Examining inequality in a sociological mode -- Some basic terms and concepts in the study of inequality -- The American class system: Social class: a two-dimensional picture -- The Reality of class in the United States -- Change and continuity in economic inequality -- Poverty and the poor: Defining poverty -- Who are the poor? -- The Working poor and the underclass -- Why are the poor poor? -- Public policies and poverty -- Poverty in comparative perspective summary -- The Middle classes and changing economy : Historical development of the middle classes -- The Classes in the middle and the occupational structure -- The Changing U.S. economy and the classes in the middle -- Economic restructuring and the classes in the middle -- The Upper class and the power elite: The Upper class -- The Power elite : patterns and theory -- Social class and power elite -- Paths to power -- Stratification systems and social mobility: Systems of stratification -- Patterns of social mobility in modern societies -- Determinants of social mobility -- Education and the process of mobility -- Public Policy and the class system: The Political economy -- Taxation: how much , from whom -- Government spending: on what, for whom -- The U.S welfare state in comparative perspective -- Government regulation -- Partisan differences in public policy -- Theories of class and social inequality: Marx's theory of social inequality -- Weber: the inevitability of inequality -- Functionalism and conflict theory -- Ideology and the legitimation of inequality : Legitimation -- The Nature of ideology -- The Dominant American ideology -- Legitimation, ideology and socialization -- Racial / ethnic differentiation : Ethnicity and race -- Changing ethnic patterns in the United States -- The Shaping of American ethnic diversity and inequality -- The Newest immigrants -- Racial / ethnic stratification: Majority and minority -- The American ethnic hierarchy -- Stability and change in the American ethnic hierarchy -- Gender inequality: Gender differentiation -- Gender inequality in the workforce : continuity and change -- Patterns of gender inequality : politics, the corporation and education -- The Status of women in global perspective -- The Feminist movement -- Political inequality : Political stratification -- Three models of power in America -- The American ppower sructure : unity and division -- The Role of masses in the system of power -- Glossary.