the American class system, emphasis is always on the available facts and
not on the competing theories about stratification. Nevertheless, theory
is important to the present task. From traditional theory I have derived
a six-factor conceptual scheme which serves as a framework for or-
ganizing the research data. A separate chapter is devoted to each of the
factors: prestige, occupation, possessions, interaction, class conscious-
ness, and value orientations. Those researches which are primarily con-
cerned with a given factor are analyzed in the appropriate chapter.
Throughout the book, but particularly in Chapter VII, interrelations
among the factors are also explored. Finally, two additional topics are
analyzed: the barriers faced by ethnic groups and the question of social
mobility.

The conceptual scheme serves to isolate the most important aspects
of class behavior and to indicate some of the ways in which they in-
fluence one another, but it is not presented as a causative theory that
fully explains how and why the stratification system got to be the way
it is. I do not believe we have a theory adequate to that task, and cer-
tainly any approach to such a theory would have to be based on detailed
comparisons of the American class system with others, as well as a
minute study of the histories of various class systems, and neither is the
purpose of this book (although occasional comparative and historical
illustrations are presented).

The book is written primarily for college students of sociology, but
others might find it of use. All social scientists must deal with stratifica-
tion. Psychologists find that class position influences personality test re-
sponse; economists know that class position influences consumer be-
havior and work attitudes; political scientists realize the close connection
between stratification and political debate and voting behavior. And
specialists in other fields, such as journalism and education, find social
class to be basic to the American life they seek to understand. In order
to make the book useful to these various specialists, sociological termi-
nology is kept to a minimum and is defined wherever it has to be intro-
duced as a tool of scientific communication.

I have had important help in writing this book. To begin with, I have
benefited from experience doing research relevant to stratification under
the wise guidance of Professors Florence R. Kluckhohn, Talcott Par-
sons, Samuel A. Stouffer, W. Lloyd Warner, and William F. Whyte.
My first experience in teaching stratification was a course in Harvard
College taught jointly for two years with Professor Peter H. Rossi; from
him I learned a great deal that appears here. Various drafts of the manu-
script, in whole or part, have been read and criticized by the following
persons; I am grateful for the many important suggestions they offered
and apologize for those I was unable to accept: John D. Campbell,
Stuart Cleveland, Kingsley Davis, George C. Homans, Clyde Kluck-

-x-