Literary texts are artifacts of their time and ideologies. This book collection explores the working class in American literature from the colonial to the contemporary period through a critical lens which addresses the real problems of approaching class through economics. Significantly, this book moves the analysis of working-class literature away from the Marxist focus on the relationship between class and the means of production and applies an innovative concept of class based on the sociological studies of humans and society first championed by Max Weber. Of primary concern is the construction of class separation through the concept of in-grouping/out grouping. This book builds upon the theories established in John F. Lavelle's Blue Collar, Theoretically: A Post-Marxist Approach to Working Class Literature (McFarland, 2011) and puts them into practice by examining a diverse set of texts that reveal the complexity of class relations in American society.

Though Marxism is the dominant philosophical theory applied to class in academia, its real-life inconsistencies, particularly stereotyping, have troubling effects on working class studies. As a result of its hegemony, alternative discourses have been effectively shut out of the academic world. This critical work seeks to establish a new philosophy of class, drawing on disciplines as diverse as sociology, cognitive science, anthropology and psychology and applying a decidedly Weberian hermeneutical lens. Topics covered include a detailed exploration of Marxism, a review of working class literature, post-marxist theories of class and the future of the field.