"The Hegemony of Common Sense: Wisdom and Mystification in Everyday Life is a contribution to the study of class and consciousness. Dean Wolfe Manders revisits a question posed by Sombart a century ago: "Why is there no socialism in the United States of America?" To probe this question, he initiates a multi-method study of capital and class as cultural realities. Class, he contends, is insinuated in the fabric of "everyday-historical" experience, which people process via often contradictory "common sense" categories. Adapting themes from Gramsci, Marx, James, and Mead, Manders explores these categories from several angles. Particularly trenchant is his incisive inquiry into paroemiology, the study of popular sayings."--Jacket
Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-203)
Wisdom and mystification in everyday life -- The general conception of common sense -- American common sense: lived content and context -- Questions of method -- American common sense and Jamesian philosophic pragmatism -- Capitalist ideology, community studies, and the mystification of social class -- Critical paroemiology of American common sense -- Standing common sense on its head
