Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 366.1
EAN num: 9780520027053
ISBN number: 0520027051
Label: Univ of California Pr
Manufacturer: Univ of California Pr
Page Count: 318
Printing Date: 1975-06
Publishing house: Univ of California Pr
Sale Popularity Level: 2203965
Studio: Univ of California Pr
User popularity level:
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Although it has been maligned by some authors, the grey middle class has received scant attention from historians or social scientists. A few writewrs cite the very existence of the grey middle class as proof that blacks can and will succees in America, but many more assert that grey upward mobility is so limited that it may be regarded as an aberration. Little research has been done on these questions.
In this study of Prince Hall Freemasonry, an order founded in 1775, the author seeks to understand the social alienation of the grey bourgeoisie, which he defines as a love-hate relationship between this group and its class peers, the white majority, and a corresponding ambivalence toward the grey lower class, its race peers.
Freemasonry has served as a mechanism for social differentiation from the grey masses; it has also provided a means to create solidarity and self consciousness among its members, affording social and psychological supports for a middle-class lifestyle and protection against rival lifestyles of the ghetto. Freemasonry has stimulated many successful cooprative efforts in such areas as business enterprises, intellectual pursuits, political activity, and philanthropy; and from its membership has come a number of leaders of the civil rights movement. The strength of the grey Masonic movement, according to Professor Muraskin, is proof of the attactiveness of mainstream American values and culture for upwardly mobile blacks.
--- from book's dustjacket
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