Money, Morals and Manners: The Culture of the French and American Upper- Middle Class.

by Michèle Lamont
Review by: Jodi O'Brien
Social Forces, Vol. 72, No. 3 (Mar., 1994), pp. 911-913
Published by: Oxford University Press
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 Book Reviews / 911

inconclusive: fitting models and choosing a best-fitting model of mobility

regimes across a number of societies involves more subjective interpretation than
we often care to admit, and this introduces an indeterminacy that opens the
door to a number of conflicting assessments. The Constant Flux does not,
unfortunately, avoid this flaw.
Erikson and Goldthorpe's models of constant and common social fluidity
(models used to support the FJH hypothesis) fit observed cohort and cross-
national frequencies well, but not well enough to warrant acceptance under strict
conditions of statistical insignificance. The general patterns expected by Erikson
and Goldthorpe under the FJH hypothesis are evident (no monotonic trend
toward increasing fluidity in cohorts and overwhelming commonality in relative
rates across nations) but (statistically) acceptable fits are obtained only after
some tinkering with design matrices or shifting of the baseline criterion of "fit"
from the saturated model to the mean level or "intercept only" model implied
by Raftery's bic statistic.
Apropos the importance of the contribution TheConstantFlux (and the body
of previously published research articles on which this monograph is based) will
make to the comparative study of social mobility, the EuropeanSociologicalReview
quickly followed its release with an entire issue (December 1992) devoted to
inquiries into its assumptions, measures, and conclusions. That many of the
pieces in that issue confirmed fundamental tenets laid out by Erikson and
Goldthorpe suggests my initial enthusiasm was warranted and "some myths"
will indeed be exposed, but the competing specifications also published in that
issue (and elsewhere) demonstrate that we are still quite uncertain as to "what
the statistics show."

Money, Morals and Manners: The Culture of the French and American
Upper-Middle Class.
By Michele Lamont.University of Chicago Press, 1992. 320 pp. $35.00.

Reviewer:JoDicBRIEN, Universityof Iozva

In the tradition de Toequeville, Lipset, and Bourdieu, Michele Lamont sets out
to capture the essence of that cultural savoir faire that Weber, among others,
insisted is at the core of class differences. Few contemporary sociologists would
argue the point that there is a distinctive professional class whose shared tastes
and values are a basis for deciding whom to include and whom to exclude.
What is less certain is just what these values are and how those who hold them
define and negotiate their bourgeois world in a way that reinforces their position
as the gatekeepers of cultural and economic resources. Lamont's logic begins
with the observation that "cultural capital" is a useful but overly rigid concept.
Rather than rely on preconceived notions of the nature and dynamics of cultural
capital, a set of assumptions for which she criticizes Bourdieu, Lamont's quest
is to ascertain how upper middle-class professionals think of themselves and
others. Money,MoralsandMannersreports the observations of 160 semistructured
interviews with white males who are upper middle-class professionals in France
and the U.S. The insights garnered from these interviews are intended to be

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912 / Social Forces 72:3, March 1994

suggestive of the symbolic boundaries that form the lines of the bourgeois
culture. Lamont's focus on white male professionals reflects the theoretical
assumption that these people serve still as the primary controllers of contem-
porary society; their distinctive tastes and views serve as the boundaries of
exclusion or inclusion into a world of power and privilege.
Lamont explores three lines of symbolic boundaries: moral, economic, and
cultural. The book is organized as a comparison of the content and relative
significance of these three types of boundaries in determining each interviewee's
assessment of someone's cultural worth. Many of the patterns she reports will
not surprise students of comparative French and American cultures. However,
the book is about much more than this. The comparison between the two
countries points to general patterns by which the "keepers of cultural capital"
draw lines of inclusion and exclusion. At the same time it illustrates how the
distinct content of cultural ideology varies across countries and thus results in
different specific evaluations of "what counts."
Lamont notes that this study is as much about how this upper-middle class
indirectly manufactures its own boundaries of inclusion, in effect building a
community, as it is about how cultural dynamics contribute to the (re)production
of inequality. The information reported primarily serves to suggest and support
assertions regarding the dynamics of class production. The reproduction of
inequality remains an inference based on the causal logic that the activities of
this class shape the general distribution of resources among classes. This is
sound theoretical ground and Lamont does not attempt to push her interpreta-
tions beyond the limits of the information she has gathered. Rather than
accepting interview data as definitive, we should read them as suggestive of
how this inarguably influential class defines itself and what this means for
evaluations of "who and what count."
Lamont is careful to state the limitations of this term of gathering infor-
mation. Those who seek to find fault with the study as a strict comparison of
French and American values will undoubtedly be dissatisfied with the small
number of cases (less than 40 cases in each of the four main comparative cells
French/American, cultural center/periphery) and the anecdotal presentation
of information. However, to read this book as such is to miss the point.
Lamont's achievement is in her astute use of cultural theory to interpret this
inductively generated material. At least two conclusions can be drawn from this
material that will be of use to researchers in the areas of cultural studies and
inequality. First, in both France and the U.S. the upper-middle class does share
a distinct set of self-conscious values, which are evident at least in interviews.
Second, the dynamics of how this cultural influence is used to include and
exclude are much more nuanced than those assumed by the theories that rely
on "cultural capital." Like any of the contemporary cultural theories, Lamont's
general thesis is ultimately open to empirical questions of how persons select
and use cultural material in the attempt to map their worlds, and the relation-
ship between these cognitive maps or stories and actual behavior. Though she
does not refer to any of this research, Lamont's work is consistent with many
contemporary studies of social cognition.
One compelling question that is raised in the book is the routine salience of
the boundaries that are conveyed in these conversations; are these symbolic

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 Book Reviews / 913

maps being used constantly in routine assessments of others and the environ-
ment, or do they only emerge in situations of ambiguity and interviews with
sociologists? Lamont doesn't know. This question and similar ones point to
intriguing and relevant directions of study that join cultural theories with the
study of social cognition and group processes. Together, these research traditions
could contribute much to an understanding of how it is that symbolic boun-
daries operate in the production and reproduction of real differences in
distribution of resources.

New Directions in Criminological Theory: Advances in Criminological Theory.

Vol 4.
Editedby FredaAdler and WilliamS. Laufer.Transaction Publishers, 1993. 406 pp.
$39.95.

Reviewer:GARYF. JENSEN, VanderbiltUniversity

Advances in CriminologicalTheoryis a series of annual volumes of refereed

original works on criminological theory, loosely organized around a common
theme, theory, or theorist (e.g., Donald Cressey, strain theory, rational choice
theory). Comments on articles published in earlier volumes or, when possible,
responses to accepted manuscripts are included as well.
Volume 4 focuses on "new directions in criminological theory" and the
selections deal with the prospects of extending well-known theories, applying
recently developed theories, extending theory to new types of crime, and the
comparative analysis of theories. This volume includes eleven articles and I will
comment on those I found particularly interesting or useful and also note
problems with some of the selections.
Sally Simpson's discussion of "Strategy,Structure,and CorporateCrime:The
Historical Context of Anti-Competitive Behavior," draws on prior literature and
her own research to propose a set of five hypotheses about types of anticom-
petitive corporate behavior. Not only are they clearly stated and well founded
but her bibliography should save considerable work for anyone compiling a
graduate reading list on the theory and research dealing with corporate crime.
Just as Simpson's article organizes and systematizes much of the work on
corporate crime, Robert Nash Parker does the same with the many possible roles
that alcohol could play in theories of homicide. He formalizes the possible
relationships and discusses the data requirements for testing the diverse
hypotheses about alcohol and homicide. Like Simpson's, his bibliography would
be an adequate guide for anyone contemplating research in that area.
Jeffrey Fagan's "The Social Control of Spouse Assault" is an equally
comprehensive summary of research on domestic violence and the relevance of
theory to its control. Not only is the literature on spouse assault covered but it
is covered in a systematic way. He discusses the relevance of sociological
theories of crime such as social learning, social control, rational choice, and
subcultural theories and nearly every specific issue that might come to mind.
Edward Sieh's article on employee theft should be of interest to strain
theorists and others interested in the relation between frustrated expectations

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