Class in a capitalist society: a study of contemporary Britain

The theme of this book, therefore, is class inequality: its nature and extent today; its roots; the conflicts and tensions to which it gives rise, both overt and latent; the prospects of change - radical and revolutionary, or reactionary and repressive to which recent shifts in the character and tempo of conflict may point. The authors draw on evidence which relates largely to Britain, but the focus is not peculiarly British. Britain is used as a case study to illustrate and document in detail features which, so the authors argue, are common to and inherent in contemporary capitalism throughout the western world.

The authors' perspective is Marxist, but this is not another restatement of Marxist theory in abstract and general terms. It is an attempt to anchor a Marxist analysis and interpretation of class in empirical fact, and at the same time to dispel the clouds of myth and mystification with which much conventional sociological commentary has surrounded the subject.