Mobility And Status

SOCIAL MOBILITY IN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY, by Seymour Lipset and Reinhard Bendix. University of California Press. 1959.

Thanks mainly to the foundations, the empirical study of social stratification and mobility has expanded enormously in the past decade. Research teams have been commissioned, thousands upon thousands of IBM cards punched, vast amounts of data accumulated. What has been lacking is a figure of real distinction to draw together these disparate, often trivial materials into a new synthesis. Seymour Lipset and Reinhard Bendix’s Social Mobility in Industrial Society is an attempt at such a synthesis.

The stature of Bendix and Lipset has been steadily growing. Lipset’s Agrarian Socialism and Union Democracy, Bendix’s Work and Authority in Industry, joint products like Class, Status and Power and numerous essays in professional journals: these have been refreshing exceptions to the general tendency of American sociolo...