George Lichtheim
IS THERE A SOCIOLOGIST
IN THE HOUSE?
Among the things that strike the European visitor to the
United States, not the least remarkable is the obsession of articu–
late Americans with the subject of class. There can hardly be
an extended conversation that does not branch out into this topic,
usually with a side-glance at the rising flood of literature devoted
to the complexities of social status in an allegedly classless society.
Both the literature .and the talk betray something beyond ordinary
practical concern-a kind of horrified fascination, rather reminis–
cent of the manner in which sex used to be discussed in the days
when it was still considered good form to pretend that there really
was no such thing. Indeed, the American attitude to class and the
Puritan attitude to sex seem to have a lot in common. Both
phenomena evidently evoke guilty feelings and an urgent desire
for some kind of rationalization. To the European coming from
an environment where class distinctions, like sex distinctions, are
as much taken for granted as the weather, there is something odd
in this almost panicky reaction, though of course it does not take
long to discover that a good many Americans privately share the
European attitude.
I t also does not take long to realize that the official taboo is
related to a circumstance of which many Americans are well
.. The following remarks refer mainly to four recently published
works:
Class in American Society,
by
Leonard Reissman (Free Press,
$6.75); Political Man,
by Seymour Martin Lipset (Doubleday, $4.95);
The Politics cf Mass Society,
by William Kornhauser (Free Press, $5.);
Power and Morality,
by Pitrim Sorokin and Walter Lunden (Porter
Sargent, $3.50).
