The Power of the Past: Understanding Cross-Class Marriages
The Power of the Past: Understanding Cross-Class Marriages
The Power of the Past: Understanding Cross-Class Marriages
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Description
Description
In an era in which class divisions are becoming starker than ever, some individuals are choosing to marry across class. The Power of the Past traces the lives of a subset of these individuals - highly-educated adults who married a partner raised in a class different from their own, primarily between those from blue- and white-color backgrounds. Drawing upon detailed interviews with spouses who revealed the inner workings of their marriages, Jessi Streib shows that crossing class lines is not easy, and that even though these couples shared bank accounts, mortgages, children, and friends, each spouse was still shaped by the class of their past, and consequently, so was their marriage. Streib reveals what was rarely apparent to the husbands and wives she interviewed. The class of their past did not only matter in determining the amount of money they had as children or what job their parents went off to each morning; It also mattered in more subtle ways, by systematically shaping their ideas of how to go about their daily lives. Upwardly mobile spouses who grew up in blue-collar families learned to take a laissez-faire approach to the world around them: they preferred to go with the flow, make the most of the moment, and avoid self-imposed constraints. Their spouses, who grew up in professional white-collar families, however, wanted to manage the world around them: they organized, planned, monitored, and oversaw. Living with a spouse who was born into a different class means navigating these differences - differences that appeared across nearly every aspect of their lives, from how they manage their finances, to how they manage their time - both at home and on vacation - to ideas about how their children should be raised. The Power of the Past illustrates that when individuals are raised in different classes, merged lives do not lead to merged ideas about how to lead those lives. Individuals can come together across class lines, but their enduring class characteristics cannot be left behind.
About the Author
About the Author
Jessi Streib is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Duke University.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
"Does class matter for intimate ties? While so much sociology emphasizes the power of the present-in organizations, institutions, or networks-Streib looks at couples in which the spouses come from different class backgrounds and convincingly argues that it is their prior differences that play a key role in the different approaches they bring to their current relationships-even though couples often deny these effects. The Power of the Past is elegantly argued, cleverly designed, theoretically sophisticated and an entertaining read." -Naomi Gerstel, Distinguished University Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst"Jessi Streib presents an intelligent and creative analysis about the enduring way in which family-of-origin social class plays an irrepressible role in our adult lives. An imaginative and thought-provoking work." -Michael Rosenfeld, Stanford University"Streib skillfully melds her observations with analysis, and though not heavy on theory, her work does provide interesting comments regarding other sociological views on class and marriage. This book is well written and readable, very suitable for undergraduate collections on social stratification and on marriage and family. Highly recommended" -CHOICE"This work is an excellent example of qualitative sociology and it is a pleasure to read. Streib is a natural story-teller who has a gift for telling the narratives of her respondents. The highest praise I can think of for a work of empirical sociology is to recommend that non-sociologists read it. In particular, those who are currently living in a cross-class marriage should read this book. The Power of the Past promises couples and sociologists greater understanding of how family life is shaped by the past." -Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare"Many studies use statistics to compare families in different classes, but Streib's qualitative approach draws attention to class differences within families. The book will be of great interest to those familiar with the social class literature, which Streib skillfully integrates throughout. Streib's highly accessible writing style also makes it useful for those less familiar with class scholarship. It might serve as a teaching tool for showing students how things we see as deeply personal, like whom we fall in love with, are connected to broader social forces." -American Journal of Sociology
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Oxford University Press, USA
Pub date:
2015-02-03
Length:
304 pages
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