Hartmut Kaelble, Social Mobility in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: Europe and America in Comparative Perspective. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986. 182 pp (original) (raw)

The next generation of historical studies on social mobility: some remarks

Continuity and Change, 2009

In this article I will discuss some promising new research lines in the study of social mobility in past societies, while at the same time placing the articles in this special issue within the perspective offered by those lines of research. I will do so under three broad headings : questions, data and methods. These are focused on, but not limited to, the study of intergenerational mobility.

Class mobility across three generations in the U.S. and Germany

Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 2014

Any citation and quotation must refer to the original published article. Please check for correct pagination. Any differences between the published article and this version are due to the publishing process.

Social Mobility in the U.S. Working Class

Monthly Review, 1975

A decade ago, Stephan Thernstrom's first book, Poverty and Progress: Social Mobility in a Nineteenth-Century City was rather well received on the Left, largely I suspect because it dealt with the conditions of life of working-class Americans. It was well received in the historical profession as well, largely because, by utilizing some ingenious research techniques, Thernstrom was able to demonstrate that the amount of geographical mobility in the later nineteenth century among American workers was remarkably high. The Other Bostonians attempts to provide another pathbreaking study, this time of the contours of social mobility in the American working class. But this larger effort fails, mainly because the methods of inquiry which are suitable for determining changes of location do not suffice to determine changes of social class. Thernstrom does not treat this problem as qualitatively different, and this methodological conflation is part of a larger ideological difficulty with his work. Despite a surface similarity of topic with that of Marxist social historians, Thernstrom's enterprise is centrally situated in the mainstream of moderate liberalism, specifically within the tendency of right-wing social democracy.

Historical studies of social mobility and stratification

Annual Review of Sociology, 2010

This review discusses historical studies of social mobility and stratification. The focus is on changes in social inequality and mobility in past societies and their determinants. It discusses major historical sources, approaches, and results in the fields of social stratification (ranks and classes in the past), marriage patterns by social class or social endogamy, intergenerational social mobility, and historical studies of the career. 429 Annu. Rev. Sociol. 2010.36:429-451. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org by University of Groningen on 07/04/12. For personal use only.

Toward Open Societies? Trends in Male Intergenerational Class Mobility in European Countries during Industrialization

American Journal of Sociology, 2016

Do the observed increases in intergenerational mobility in European societies in recent decades have their origin in 19th-century industrialization, as is posited by the industrialization thesis? Using over 600,000 marriage records and an internationally and historically comparative measure of occupational class, the authors study total and relative intergenerational mobility of men in Britain, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Sweden between 1800 and 1914. For these countries together and for most countries separately the preindustrial period was characterized by stable or decreasing total and relative mobility, whereas a trend toward greater mobility took place during industrialization, lending qualified support to the industrialization thesis.