Michele Lamont's "The Dignity of Working Men": class and moral boundaries

Sociology: Work and Leisure

Working and Leisure

Purpose of Writing Book

The book "The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class and Immigratio" is written to study how working-class men are defined by themselves and the society. This serves as the main purpose for the author Michele Lamont to have written this book. The book investigates importance given to the moral standards and the rigidity of racial and class restrictions. The purpose of writing this book is also to find what social benefits do working-class men get since they do not have any college degrees and have very rare chances of getting high-paying jobs (About the Book, the Dignity of Working Men, n.d).

Was Purpose Fulfilled

The book successfully studies comparison between French vs. U.S. societies and the role of working Afro-Americans. The author successfully investigated description of self, distinctiveness and social understanding of white and black men. She discussed the moral and racial boundaries of these workers by conducting extensive research and interviewing. She found and deliberated that in upper middle class the white workers do not connect socioeconomic position with moralities but assemble this verdict with poor (Albert and Weeden, 2013). She found that they like to have money and not middle class values. She found that workers of upper middle class believe that the poor are responsible for their state since they are lazy. She found that African-Americans are more accepting of middle class values without endorsing the qualities.

Main Ideas

The author researched on American male working class. She considers them as society's backbone due to their social and political power. She differentiates how American working class thinks and acts. She focuses on the idea that white working men of middle class consider themselves better than upper middle class since the believe themselves to have morals and relationship talents (Albert and Weeden, 2013). The author focused on finding how they differ on the basis of self-perception though they belong to same economical class. These middle class white working men also place themselves above blacks and the poor due to socioeconomic status.

The book the Dignity of Working Men is Lamont's second volume of studies related to work class values, worth, and morality. She has worked on and published first volume with the title "Money, Morals and Manners: The Culture of the French and American Upper-Middle Class" that was published in 1992. The first volume concentrated on the ways in which upper-middle class male workers in countries of French and American origin define their concept of being a "worthy person" (About the Book, the Dignity of Working Men, n.d).

Contribution

Lamont made a good contribution in sociology of work and leisure and the perception of self and society. Dignity of Working Men won many awards. Lamont filled the gap of undiscovered perception of working class about them. The book is great sample of comparative ethnography. The writer conducted many vigilant and considerate interviews to uncover moral standards that the workers have while evaluating peers. She offered comparison of morals and perception between employees in the France and America (Michele, 2009). The book is successful detail of comparative racism at workplace. The study will extend the prospects of social class examination. The book offers a wider view on racism and values.

The author has proven her point with the deep research and the interviews. Her idea is that the interviews give more output since the social researcher can understand the body language as well tells about the arrogance, pride self-dignity of a worker (Arakji, 2012). Her focus on finding unique working-class features revealed that working class white and black men hold morals above the money and believe that hard work and honesty are key things in life.

Lamont's work is a remarkable addition in this sociological study of workers that seemingly belong to same class due to economic and financial position yet they have clear distinction of each other in their minds (About the Book, the Dignity of Working Men, n.d). They book is an elaborate view on the moral perspectives of white and black working-class men across highlighting racial differences. Apparently she asked the questions like the living place of the workers, talking about their feelings about self, the sense of their mortality, their political values, family dispositions, racial approaches, and related (Albert and Weeden, 2013). She has followed work ethics and research ethics and has not asked questions that will invoke thoughts of racial hatred rather she plainly dealt with core research concern without touching or exploiting sensitive feelings of employees. The addition of factor of dignity is a contribution in understanding working class and race. Peers believe that the design of comparative research conducted by Michele Lamont is once in a blue moon (About the Book, the Dignity of Working Men, n.d). The book is sample of cross cultural comparative analysis pinpointing intersection of class, race, and colonization. The author provided control on workable anti-racist patterns of thinking (Michele, 2009).

Gaps

The author has researched anew topic that was there yet undiscovered. Lamont however did not elaborate the causes of personal pride or the self-praise (Albert and Weeden, 2013). She found the self-perception of workers of a race but did not elaborate if the self-perception came from family brought up or the core racial perspective. She could have offered a brief overview of similarities and differences between French and American blacks and whites too so that national impact factor is understood (Michele, 2009).

Information Consistency

It is generally experienced that the working class is more concerned with its values a family practices. The authors work suggests that too that the working class men from both white and black races categorize themselves as those that value morals more than money (Michele, 2009). The information offered is consistent may be because the wide scope of author's research since she has covered multiple regions and two cultures that has eliminated the chances of localized results hence the results are consistent as far as my knowledge of working class and value they associate with morals.

Findings

It is clear from the book that morality lies in heart of working class men belonging to either race. The workers find self-identity and self-worth in the factor of how much can they discipline themselves, behave responsibly and have caring lives. The working class standards of morals work as a substitute to how success is defined in terms of economics (Sachin, 2012). These people value morals more than the money and believe that morals outweigh money in having a successful life. They love to maintain dignity in their lives. Despite having their morals above money, they draw the lines between economic classes. Hence they do not separate themselves from the poor but do so while they are comparing themselves with the richer economic class (Arakji, 2012). These workers have rigid boundaries while defining dignity and consider themselves more moral and value oriented and worth-full than their peers of the people better than them in economic position. The book is a great comparison of American working class to the French working class. Both have moral values and like to pursue values rather than money yet keeping their self-dignity and self-respect intact. The results from the book and the design of research can also be used to study how the dignity and self-praise exist in workers of other cultures and nations.