ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a hypothesis regarding the changes in the process of which hierarchical society is the outcome. It discusses the role of economic performance and of ascriptive nativity traits in the 1880–1920 Boston area economy. The chapter employs a principal component analysis to derive a measure of the relative contribution to the stratification process of economic performance and nativity variables. Traditional Marxian and liberal social science alike have maintained that social differences based on ascriptive traits tend to decline in importance as capitalism matures. Liberals have used the argument as support for government programs aimed at increasing the economic status of women and Third World people. Strong economic growth at the turn of the century continued to undermine American nativism. Increasing demand for unskilled labor, especially in the Piedmont cotton mills of the upper South, undermined attempts to restrict immigration.
