“LeMasters’ book is a valuable and popularly written source of information on the attitudes of working class men and women. Highly recommended.”—Library Journal
Blue-Collar Aristocratsis a major statement about a group of Americans too little understood and too long ignored by by the country's decision- and policy-makers. Thanks to the work of E. E. LeMasters, we now have a rare and human insight into the lives, feelings, attitudes, and problems of America's blue-collar aristocrats—one that has the potential both to add to our knowledge and to contribute toward solutions to some of our nation's broadest social problems.
“LeMasters has given us a brilliant sketch of what the well-developed unions have created—the average American. He’s great.”—West Coast Review of Books
"This is not a dry sociogram. The quality of life of these people comes with the smell of smoke and beer, the sounds of boisterous laughter above a blaring juke box and the clicking of the pool balls."—New York Times
"In a society as complex and diverse as that of the United States it is important for behavioral scientists to record and analyze different facets of the social scene. This study attempts to make a contribution to that effort.
The men and women who form the basis of the study were observed in a blue-collar (or so-called ‘‘working-class’’) tavern. The study period was the late 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s — 1967 through 1972. The study group consisted of approximately fifty men and women who were regular patrons of The Oasis, a family-type tavern. Almost all of the men (over 90 percent) were employed in the construction industry. The trades represented included carpenters, plumbers, bricklayers, roofers, sheet metal workers, plasterers, dry wall specialists, truck drivers, and a few miscellaneous skills. Technically, these men represent the ‘“‘hard hats” of America — a term they dislike.
The research method used in this study is that of participant-observation."
