ABSTRACT
The development of class analysis since the early 1970s has greatly enhanced the understanding of how capitalist class interests are advanced and clarified the definitional problems involved in studies of the middle class. Studies adorned with the terminological rubric of class analysis are plentiful, but real confrontations with the theoretical, conceptual, and methodological issues have generally been avoided by their authors. The success of Marxist-led revolutionary movements abroad led to a renewal of interest in classical Marxist analysis and especially to the proposition that the working class would play a central role in the transformation of capitalism. The unit of analysis continued to be the individual or, as it was for Braverman, the properties of individual job positions. Working-class power was equated with aggregated individual sovereignty, albeit sovereignty in the workplace rather than in a political process. The task of retheorizing the US working-class experience lies ahead.
