BOOK REVIEWS
133
CLASS AND CLASSLESS SOCIETIES
CLASS IN A CAPITALIST SOCIETY: A STUDY OF CONTEMPORARY
BRITAIN.
By John Westergaard and Henrietta Resler. Basic Books.
$15.00.
SCHOOLING IN CAPITALIST AMER ICA.
By Samuel Bowles and
Herbert Gintis. Basic Books. $13.95.
In the 1950s and earl y 1960s, orthodox socio logy was
domina ted by a view whi ch may be called the theory of industrial
society. The no tion o f indu strial society is a very old one, da ting back
to Saint-Simon . But the term itself had largely fallen into di su se by the
turn of this century; it was revived and given fresh impetus in the
writings o f bo th European and Ameri can liberal intell ectuals in the
post-War period (especiall y Aron , Dahrendorf, Lipset, Bell and Kerr ),
and in their hands became a vehicl e for the expression of an optimistic
appraisal of the emerging trend of development of the Wes tern coun–
tries, together with a means of effecting a la rgely implicit critique of
Eas tern European sta te socialism. Saint-Simon used " industrial so–
ciety" in the context of a contras t with feudalism, comparing the
productive labo r of the
industriels
with the "idle classes" in feudal
society. In the writings of the la ter authors, the contras t that is
developed is on e more o riented
to
industrialism as a socio -technical
sys tem bring ing in its train certain definite and fundamental social
changes. But there is a strong line o f continuity between Saint-Simon
and the subsequent group of writers in their treatment o f cl asses, class
society, and class conflict.
The theory o f industrial society, unlike Marxism, with its triad o f
feudalism- capitalism-sociali sm, is based upon the assumption tha t
social change in the modern era can be encompassed within a twofo ld
typology o f society (feuda lism, o r " traditional society" more gen erall y,
being superseded by industri al society). Con sequentl y, wha t is for
Marxi sm a gen eri c type o f society structured around a distinctive class
relation, tha t o f capital and wage-labor, is for those opting for the
notion of industri al society onl y a tran sitory phase in the emergence of
the new industri al o rder from its agrari an background ; class conflict, or
