Introduction to the <i>Teaching About the Upper Class</i> mini-cluster

Abstract

Introduction to the Teaching About the Upper Class mini-cluster Richard Ohmann (bio) and Frinde Maher (bio) The upper class are everywhere in American history and in the literary canon, just not often discussed as a class, and therefore not understood as part of a class system...You would think it is all right for the rich to orchestrate the history of the rest of us, so long as they behave. In the three contributions here, Richie Zweigenhaft discusses his college course about the upper class, Pepi Leistyna gives us a comprehensive multimedia bibliography on ruling elites, and Emily Drabinski offers an analysis of the invisibility and obfuscation of class issues in library classification systems. While for a long time, as in the formulation of "race, class, and gender," both the poor and the working class have received attention in Radical Teacher and elsewhere as forgotten groups of history (with the middle class as the assumed norm), there has been little attention to those who run the show—the rich, a.k.a. the upper class. They are everywhere in American history and in the literary canon, just not often discussed as a class, and therefore not understood as part of a class system. That absence was and is an impediment to understanding the world. No bourgeoisie, no proletariat. No bourgeoisie, no capitalism. To be sure, iconic rich people fill the popular media. There is much for analysis to feed on, but no class analysis. Even in reputable journals such as Harper's and The New Yorker, our rulers show up chiefly as bearers of disgrace. You would think the capitalist class merits attention only when it stops quietly performing its daily tasks of exploitation and empire and suddenly turns rude or criminal. You would think it is all right for the rich to orchestrate the history of the rest of us, so long as they behave. Scandal and moral outrage cannot substitute for understanding. We hope the three pieces in this mini-cluster suggest some ways to promote understanding in school and college. We invite discussion and further contributions along the same lines. [End Page 4] Richard Ohmann Richard Ohmann was one of the founding group of Radical Teacher. His last book is Politics of Knowledge. Frinde Maher Frinde Maher is Professor Emerita at Wheaton College and a Visiting Scholar at the Brandeis University Women's Studies Research Center. She is the co-author, with Mary Kay Tetreault, of The Feminist Classroom (1994, 2001) and Privilege and Diversity in the Academy (2007), as well as many articles on feminist pedagogy, feminist theory, and women and education. She is also a member (and co-manuscript editor) of the editorial board of Radical Teacher. Copyright © 2009 Radical Teacher