Illusive Identity: The Blurring of Working Class Consciousness in Modern Western Culture

Illusive Identity: The Blurring of Working Class Consciousness in Modern Western Culture
ISBN-10
0739156187
ISBN-13
9780739156186
Category
History
Pages
212
Language
English
Published
2002-06-17
Publisher
Lexington Books
Author
Thomas J. Edward Walker

Description

Illusive Identity is a transnational exploration of the evolution of working-class consciousness within modern Western culture. The work traces how the rise of popular culture blurred the definition and dulled the influence of class identity in Europe and the United States in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Chapters tackling changing class consciousness in Britain, Germany, Italy, and the United States offer rich insight into the movement from a traditional community-based social identity to a modern consumer-based culture; a mass culture influenced by industrialization, new social institutions, and the powerful imagery of new media. Illusive Identity vividly demonstrates the transformative impact of modernity on the laboring classes, as advertising, entertainment, and the rise of the popular press replaced traditionally shared narratives about the nature of work with a new and liberating cultural paradigm.

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