Mechanics of the Middle Class: Work and Politics Among American Engineers

Mechanics of the Middle Class: Work and Politics Among American Engineers by Robert Zussman explores the dual identity of engineers as labor and management, examining their work, knowledge, and relationship to authority, collective organization, and career mobility. It situates engineers within broader debates on professionalization, proletarianization, and the politics of technical work, highlighting the tensions between autonomy and control, expertise and hierarchy. The book traces the historical development of engineering and its cultural and political meanings, reframing the engineer as a builder of social order.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 280 pages
Publication date: 13 May 2022
Publisher: University of California Press

Mechanics of the Middle Class: Work and Politics Among American Engineers by Robert Zussman offers a comprehensive sociological exploration of engineers as a defining stratum of the American middle class. Through interviews and fieldwork in two contrasting industries—traditional metalworking and advanced electronics—Zussman delves into the daily lives, knowledge, and relationships of engineers with authority, collective organization, and career mobility. The book situates engineers within broader debates on professionalization, proletarianization, and the politics of technical work, highlighting the tensions between autonomy and control, expertise and hierarchy. Far from being mere technicians, engineers emerge as central actors in the organization of industrial life and the politics of the middle class. Zussman's work connects questions of labor process to issues of citizenship, family, and community, tracing the historical development of engineering from its roots in craft and civil works to its role in modern research-driven corporations. By combining detailed workplace ethnography with broader analysis of class and ideology, Mechanics of the Middle Class reframes the engineer not only as a builder of machines but also as a builder of social order itself. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates the University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible to a wide audience.

Weight: 363g
Dimension: 216 x 140 x 15 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780520314818