November 2006 Volume 35 Number 6 American Sociological Association

November 2006 Volume 35 Number 6 Volume 2006 November Association American Sociological

C O N T E M P O R A RY S O C I O L O G Y • A J O U R N A L O F R E V I E W S November 2006, Volume 35, Number 6 ContemporaryContemporary SociologySociology

AA JJOURNALOURNAL OF OF RREVIEWSEVIEWS

November 2006 Volume 35 Number 6 MANAGING EDITORS ASSISTANT EDITOR Valerie Jenness EDITORS Christin Hilgeman Jenny Fan David A. Smith Michael Smyth Judith Stepan-Norris Nathanael Matthiesen University of California–Irvine EDITORIAL BOARD Edwin Amenta Heidi Gottfried Joya Misra University of California- Wayne State University University of Massachusetts Irvine Rick Grannis Mansoor Moaddel Stanley Bailey University of California-Los Eastern Michigan University University of California- Angeles Irvine Joane Nagel Roderick Joseph University of Kansas Albert J. Bergesen Harrison University of Arizona Howard University Michael Omi Maria Charles University of California- Darnell M. Hunt Berkeley University of California-San University of California-Los Diego Angeles Anne Warfield Rawls Mary Danico Bentley College Larry Isaac California State Polytechnic Vanderbilt University Jen’nan Ghazal Read University-Pomona University of California- Hector Delgado Shirley A. Jackson Irvine University of La Verne Southern Connecticut State University J. Timmons Roberts Mario Diani College of William and Mary University of Trento (Italy) Guillermina Jasso New York University Pamela Ann Roby Elaine Alma Draper University of California- California State University- Nazli Kibria Santa Cruz Los Angeles Boston University Beverly Silver Rebecca J. Erickson Eun Mee Kim Johns Hopkins University The University of Akron Ewha Woman’sUniversity Alvin Y. So Peter B. Evans Kenneth C. Land Hong Kong University of University of California- Duke University Science and Technology Berkeley Jan Lin Randy Stoecker Katherine Faust Occidental College University of California- University of Wisconsin- Irvine John R. Logan Madison Brown University Neil Fligstein Chris Tilly University of California- Loren Lutzenhiser University of Massachusetts- Berkeley Portland State University Lowell Joshua Gamson David J. Maume Tekle Woldemikael University of San Francisco University of Cincinnati Chapman University CONTENTS

vii Editors’ Note Pioneer Public Sociologist C. Wright Mills, 50 Years Later

C. Wright Mills 50 Years Later 547 G. William Domhoff Mills’s The Power Elite 50 Years Later

Review Essays on Gerhard Lenski’s Ecological-Evolutionary Theory: Principles and Applications 551 Stephen K. Sanderson Gerhard Lenski and the Evolutionists 553 Randall Collins The Evolution of Inequality 556 Thomas D. Hall Grand Evolutionary Theory Is Alive and Kicking!

Review Essays 559 Nancy Reichman Portraits of the Profession: Two Studies of the Context of Legal Practice Urban Lawyers: The New Social Structure of the Bar, by John P. Heinz, Robert L. Nelson, Rebecca L. Sandefur, and Edward O. Laumann The Worlds Cause Lawyers Make: Structure and Agency in Legal Practice, edited by Austin Sarat and Stuart A. Scheingold 562 Shawn D. Bushway The Problem of Prisoner (Re)Entry When Prisoners Come Home: Parole and Prisoner Reentry, by Joan Petersilia But They All Come Back: Facing the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry, by Jeremy Travis Prisoner Reentry and Crime in America, edited by Jeremy Travis and Christy Visher

REVIEWS Author and Title Reviewer

Inequalities 566 Stefan Svallfors, ed. Analyzing Inequality: Life Chances and Social Mobility in Comparative Perspective David Brady 567 John Macnicol Age Discrimination: An Historical and Contemporary Analysis Sheldon Steinhauser 568 Jeremy Seekings and Nicoli Nattrass Class, Race, and Inequality in South Africa Sarah A. Burgard 570 Glenn Loury, Tariq Modood, and Steven Teles, eds. Ethnicity, Social Mobility, and Public Policy: Comparing the US and UK Miri Song Author and Title Reviewer

571 Gail Garfield Knowing What We Know: African American Women’s Experiences of Violence and Violation Mary Thierry Texeira

Intimate Relationships, Family, and Life Course 572 Renny Golden War on the Family: Mothers in Prison and the Families They Leave Behind Dana Britton and Andrea Boyles 574 Margaret K. Nelson The Social Economy of Single Motherhood: Raising Children in Rural America Daniel T. Lichter 575 Rebecca F. Plante Sexualities in Context: A Social Perspective Betsy Lucal 577 Linda McKie and Sarah Cunningham-Burley, eds. Families in Society: Boundaries and Relationships R. Kelly Raley 578 Kathleen E. Hull Same-Sex Marriage: The Cultural Politics of Love and Law Kimberly D. Richman 579 Sarane Spence Boocock and Kimberly Ann Scott Kids in Context: The Sociological Study of Children and Childhoods Sara Schoonmaker 581 Steven M. Tipton and John Witte, Jr., eds. Family Transformed: Religion, Values, and Society in American Life William H. Swatos, Jr.

Work, Organizations, and Markets 582 Michael Indergaard Silicon Alley: The Rise and Fall of a New Media District Amanda K. Damarin 584 Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello The New Spirit of Capitalism Neil Fligstein 585 Melvin L. Kohn Change and Stability: A Cross-National Analysis of Social Structure and Personality William Form 586 Michael Perelman Manufacturing Discontent: The Trap of Individualism in Corporate Society George Ritzer

Cognitions, Emotions, and Identities 588 Carrie Yang Costello Professional Identity Crisis: Race, Class, Gender, and Success at Professional Schools Wendy Leo Moore 589 Jamie L. Mullaney Everyone Is NOT Doing It: Abstinence and Personal Identity Kristin Park Author and Title Reviewer

Ideology and Cultural Production 591 John L. Jackson, Jr. Real Black: Adventures in Racial Sincerity Ingrid Banks 592 Metta Spencer Two Aspirins and a Comedy: How Television Can Enhance Health and Society Beth Montemurro 593 Victoria D. Alexander and Marilyn Rueschemeyer Art and the State: The Visual Arts in Comparative Perspective Steven J. Tepper 595 Joel Perlmann Italians Then, Mexicans Now: Immigrant Origins and Second-Generation Progress, 1890 to 2000 Zulema Valdez

Population, Communities, and the Environment 596 Rachel G. Bratt, Michael E. Stone, and Chester Hartman, eds. A Right to Housing: Foundation for a New Social Agenda Anne B. Shlay 598 Richard Lloyd Neo-Bohemia: Art and Commerce in the Postindustrial City Sharon Zukin

Politics and the State 599 David Yamane The Catholic Church in State Politics: Negotiating Prophetic Demands and Political Realities Timothy A. Byrnes 600 John Torpey Making Whole What Has Been Smashed: On Reparations Politics Stanley Cohen 602 Anne Holohan Networks of Democracy: Lessons from Kosovo for Afghanistan, Iraq, and Beyond Xavier de Souza Briggs 603 Alana Lentin Racism and Anti-Racism in Europe Youlanda M. Gibbons 605 Carol A. Horton Race and the Making of American Liberalism Alan Gibson 606 Loïc Wacquant, ed. Pierre Bourdieu and Democratic Politics: The Mystery of Ministry Robert W. Hefner 608 Cecilia Menjívar and Néstor Rodríguez, eds. When States Kill: Latin America, the U.S. and Technologies of Terror Ester E. Hernandez 609 Ruud Koopmans, Paul Statham, Marco Giugni, and Florence Passy Contested Citizenship: Immigration and Cultural Diversity in Europe John Torpey Author and Title Reviewer

Social Control, Deviance, and Law 611 Robert Jackall Wild Cowboys: Urban Marauders and the Forces of Order Patrick J. Carr 612 Robert H. Tillman and Michael L. Indergaard Pump and Dump: The Rancid Rules of the New Economy Peter Grabosky 613 Sanja Kutnjak Ivkovic Fallen Blue Knights: Controlling Police Corruption David Klinger 614 John Braithwaite Markets in Vice, Markets in Virtue Bill Martin

Social Movements 616 Jan Nederveen Pieterse Globalization or Empire? Agnes I. Caldwell 616 T.V. Reed The Art of Protest: Culture and Activism from the Civil Rights Movement to the Streets of Seattle William F. Danaher 617 Frank Kusch Battleground Chicago: The Police and the 1968 Democratic National Convention John D. McCarthy 619 David N. Pellow and Robert J. Brulle, eds. Power, Justice, and the Environment: A Critical Appraisal of the Environmental Justice Movement Angela G. Mertig

Health, Illness, and Medicine 620 Kristin K. Barker The Fibromyalgia Story: Medical Authority & Women’s Worlds of Pain Emma Whelan 622 Hayley A. Hamilton Health and Behavior among Immigrant Youth Grace Yoo

Theory, Epistemology, and Methodology 623 Kenneth A. Bollen and Patrick J. Curran Latent Curve Models: A Structural Equation Perspective Patrick M. Horan 625 Richard F. Hamilton Marxism, Revisionism, and Leninism: Explication, Assessment, and Commentary Alan Spector 626 Bruno Gullì Labor of Fire: The Ontology of Labor between Economy and Culture Amy E. Wendling 627 R. Keith Sawyer Social Emergence: Societies as Complex Systems Joseph M. Whitmeyer Author and Title Reviewer

Global Dynamics and Social Change 629 Richard P. Appelbaum and William I. Robinson, eds. Critical Globalization Studies Andrew K. Jorgenson 630 Donaldo Macedo and Panayota Gounari, eds. The Globalization of Racism Ian Law 631 Daniel Levy, Max Pensky, and John Torpey, eds. Old Europe, New Europe, Core Europe: Transatlantic Relations After the Iraq War Mark A. Pollack 633 Maria Kousis and Charles Tilly, eds. Economic and Political Contention in Comparative Perspective Guillermo Trejo

Education 634 David L. Brunsma, eds. Uniforms in Public Schools: A Decade of Research and Debate Anthony Troy Adams 636 Robert Ketner Ream Uprooting Children: Mobility, Social Capital, and Mexican-American Underachievement Roslyn Arlin Mickelson and Stephanie Potochnick

TAKE NOTE 638

COMMENTS 644

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED 645

INDEX 649

Erratum In the July issue (CS 35:4:427–428), in the review written by Charles Geisler of A Civic Republic: Beyond Capitalism and Nationalism by Severyn Bruyn, the author’s last name should have been spelled “Bruyn” instead of “Bryun.” We regret the error. EDITORS’ NOTE: PIONEER PUBLIC SOCIOLOGIST C. WRIGHT MILLS, 50 YEARS LATER

The half-century mark since the publication Coincidentally, political scientists also of C. Wright Mills’s famous writings has looked at research on the concept of power brought renewed attention to his work. Re- with this year’s convention theme, “power recent essays commemorating the works of this considered.” In an article in the Chronicle of founding public sociologist have appeared in Higher Education, Program Committee Co- The New York Times (May 2006), The Chron- Chair Richard Valelly recounts the history of icle of Higher Education (August 2006), political science’s dismantling of Mills’s theo- American Prospect (June 1999), and Logos ry. Valelly argues that according to political (2003), along with republications of several science research, the higher levels of power of his books with new introductions by lead- are not so concentrated, public opinion reg- ing public intellectuals (Nelson Lichtenstein, ularly informs public policy, and politicians Alan Wolfe and Todd Gitlin). are careerists, rather than “handmaidens of In 1956, C. Wright Mills completed his tril- corporate power.” With these issues seem- ogy on the three levels of power in American ingly settled, political scientists have lost in- society: the working class (New Men of Pow- terest in power research. Yet some recent er), middle class (White Collar), and the up- murmurs concerning new power issues and per class (The Power Elite). These books had dimensions may indicate that they will re- a profound impact on the sociological and consider it, but collectively in a very different the broader community, and deeply influ- way(e.g. primarily using rational choice the- enced the questions and focus of subsequent ory and the concept of polyarchy) than sociologists have pursued the topic. sociological work. Recent dramatic events highlight sociolo- The Co-editors of Contemporary Sociology gists’ contention that the corporate, political, asked G. William Domhoff, an important and to a lesser extent, the military elite still power structure researcher who works in the hold considerable power over ordinary Millsian tradition, to assess Mills’s work on Americans. Consider, for example, the fact power in light of fifty years of advancements that stockholders lost billions of dollars and in the field. Domhoff’s lively essay highlights tens of thousands of employees lost signifi- Mills’s main arguments and assesses how his cant portions of their pension funds, and contributions have endured the test of time. scores of west coast residents went without Domhoff concludes that Mills’s analysis of power periodically over one summer due to the power holders has astonishing relevance the Enron debacle. Even given that criminal today, but that his conclusions about the convictions of top Enron officials resulted, middle and lower rungs of society were the fact that such manipulations were within “mostly wrong.” Within the power elite, the reach of top corporate officials is illuminat- corporate rich persist in their role as the “dri- ing. Also consider the 2000 race for the U.S. ving force,” and the political directorate con- Presidency, which was decided in the end by tinues to function as Mills described. Howev- a recount of votes in a state run by the broth- er, Domhoff argues, the military elite is not as er of the winning candidate. And finally, re- powerful as Mills suggested (remember, he call that the U.S. entered a costly and contro- wrote during the aftermath of World War II versial war, at least in part as a result of false and the buildup of the military industrial information provided to the President by the complex). Because Mills argued that the U.S. CIA and legitimated to the public by then was a “mass society,” he did not anticipate Secretary of State Colin Powell, one of the the role class struggle would play in the most well-known military men in the modern demise of the labor movement and its possi- era. Sociologists will no doubt have much bility for future advances. more to say about the upper reaches of the

vii Contemporary Sociology 35, 6 viii–Editors’ Note power structure in coming years as we look rary Sociology has asked Jill Quadagno and back on the contemporary era. Dan Clawson to write paired reviews of Di- Sociologists can learn much from C. versity in the Power Elite: How It Happened, Wright Mills’s sociological imagination, his at- Why It Matters, by Richard Zweigenhaft and tention to the methods of our craft, his sim- G. William Domhoff, and Radical Nomad: C. ple and effective prose, his acknowledge- Wright Mills and His Times, by Tom Hayden ment of partisanship coupled with unbiased in an upcoming issue. Please make a note to empirical investigation, and his proclivity to look for these. reach out to the wider public. For example, Valerie Jenness his penchant for producing timely pamphlets David A. Smith on important social issues has largely been Judith Stepan-Norris lost to our discipline despite recent efforts to Co-Editors, Contemporary Sociology promote public sociology. To continue cele- University of California, Irvine brating the tradition of his work, Contempo- [email protected]

Contemporary Sociology 35, 6 C. WRIGHT MILLS 50 YEARS LATER

Mills’s The Power Elite 50 Years Later G. WILLIAM DOMHOFF University of California, Santa Cruz

Fifty years ago, C. Wright Mills completed his trilogy on American society with the publica- The Power Elite, by C. Wright Mills. New tion of The Power Elite, which encompassed, York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1956. updated, and greatly added to everything he 448 pp. $18.95 paper. ISBN: 0195133544. had said in The New Men of Power (1948) and White Collar (1951). The book caused a How do its main claims look today in light firestorm in academic and political circles, of subsequent events and research? From the leading to innumerable reviews in scholarly perspective of this power structure re- journals and the popular press, most of them searcher, the book still has an astonishing rel- negative. Bristling with terms like “the war- evance and freshness in many of its charac- lords,” “the higher immorality,” “the power terizations of how the country operates. For elite,” “crackpot realism,” and “organized ir- anyone who thinks that there have been ma- responsibility,” it nonetheless contained a jor changes in the nature and functioning of very large amount of research, much of it in the corporate community, or that individual- the 47 pages of Notes. It became a classic be- istic and relatively issueless political cam- cause it was the first full-scale study of the paigns are something new, or that the current structure and distribution of power in the “high and mighty” are more arrogant or cor- United States by a sociologist using the full rupted by power than in the past, re-reading panoply of modern-day sociological theory it is a sobering reminder that some things and methods. have not changed as much as many people The Power Elite also broke new ground might think due to our tendency to mytholo- because it was one of the few critical studies gize and romanticize the past. As for the more important matter of theoretical sound- of the American power structure inside or ness, it appears that Mills was mostly right outside the academy that did not start with a about the top levels of the power structure, class-struggle perspective, which caused it to but mostly wrong about the other levels of be criticized as vigorously by Marxists as it American society. Most of all, his synthesis of was by liberals and conservatives. According Max Weber, Karl Mannheim, Karl Marx, to Mills, there was “political determinism,” Franz Neumann, Harold Lasswell, and Pro- i.e., a potentially autonomous state in today’s gressive-Era historians underestimated the terms, and “military determinism” as well as volatility and capacity for change within a “economic determinism,” the concepts he capitalist society, including a possibility few, used to criticize what he saw as the overem- if any, social scientists anticipated: a success- phasis on the primacy of the forces and rela- ful corporate counterattack that would re- tions of production within the Marxian mode verse the gains made by organized labor. of production framework. The book thereby Today, Mills looks even better than he did opened space for and helped create the field 50 years ago in his characterization of the of power structure research, which employs benefactors of American capitalism as a cor- a range of empirical methods in an attempt to porate rich led by the chief executives of synthesize competing theoretical views. Al- large corporations and financial institutions, though seldom read or cited today by those who by now can be clearly seen as the dri- studying power structures, The Power Elite ving force within the power elite. His analy- has achieved iconic status in most introduc- sis also remains right on target as far as the tory sociology textbooks, where it is usually nature of the political directorate, who circu- compared with the pluralist and Marxist per- late between corporations, corporate law spectives on power and politics. firms, and government positions in the same

547 Contemporary Sociology 35, 6 548–Review Essays way they did 50 years ago (and well before Party and Southern plantation capitalists con- that, of course). Thanks to subsequent re- trolled the Democrats within an overall elec- search, we can add that the political direc- toral context where it is impossible for a third torate learns about policy issues and rubs party on the left or right to arise because of shoulders with academic experts through a the single-member-district plurality system of corporate-financed network of foundations, American elections, as reinforced by the in- think tanks, and policy-discussion groups. Al- clusion of a huge prize not part of most elec- though Mills knew of these organizations be- toral systems: the presidency. cause he drew much of his information about Due to this domination of both political the corporate community from Business parties by segments of the capitalist class, it Week, Fortune, and other business sources, was difficult, if not impossible, at the time for he did not give them the attention they de- the parties to be different in the way that served in terms of formulating new policies Mills thought they should be. To the degree that are carried to government through a va- that the liberal-labor coalition that developed riety of clearly defined avenues, such as tes- during the New Deal could exercise any elec- timony before Congress, blue-ribbon com- toral and legislative power, it had to do so in- missions, corporate-backed politicians in side the Democratic Party and in the context both parties, and appointments to govern- of a sordid bargain with the segregationist ment (Domhoff, 2006). Southern Democrats. Most critically, that bar- As right as Mills was to include the military gain included acceptance of elite white dom- chieftains in the post-World War II power ination of the low-wage labor force in the elite, he was wrong to give them equal stand- South, especially African Americans. It also ing with the corporate rich and appointees to meant tacit acceptance of the exclusion of the executive branch from the policy-plan- African Americans from craft unions and ning network. On this issue there already good jobs in the North, which assuaged the was a consensus among pluralists, Marxists, many white workers who harbored feelings and other critics within a few years after the of racial superiority or saw African-Americans book appeared, and nothing that has hap- as a potential threat to their job security. pened since, or that has been unearthed by When it appeared that the liberal-labor historians about past military doings, has coalition could generate enough support to challenged that consensus. This point is pass progressive legislation, the Southern De- demonstrated most directly by the fact that mocrats usually joined with the Northern Re- military leaders are immediately dismissed if publicans to form the conservative voting they disagree with their civilian bosses, as bloc, thereby thwarting legislation that would seen numerous times since the early 1960s, benefit the working class. The only two de- and most recently in the run-up to the inva- feats of any significance for this conservative sion of Iraq, when a top general was pushed voting bloc occurred first in 1935, when the into retirement for daring to say there was a industrial union movement in the North was need for more troops than former corporate able to create enough disruption and elect CEO and current Secretary of Defense Don- enough liberals to force a split between ald Rumsfeld and his think-tank advisors Northern and Southern elites, and then again thought necessary. in 1964, when the civil rights movement in Once we move below the power elite that the South forced another rift between North- Mills so tellingly portrayed, I think there are ern and Southern elites. The insurgents there- more serious problems with his analysis, by won legislation of great benefit to work- some of which should have been apparent at ers and African Americans, namely, the Na- the time, some not. Mills first of all underes- tional Labor Relations Act and the Civil Rights timated the power of Congress and too Act, although it always has to be kept in quickly dismissed the political parties as in- mind that the labor relations act excluded do- distinguishable on power issues. The power mestic and agricultural labor, and that the structure that he analyzed was, in fact, based strongest enforcement provisions were ex- in fair measure on a strong corporate grip on cluded from the Civil Rights Act, due to the power at the legislative level, made possible insistence of the Southern Democrats. More- by the fact that Northern industrial and fi- over, the Southern Democrats renewed their nancial capitalists controlled the Republican anti-labor alliance with the Republicans in

Contemporary Sociology 35, 6 Review Essays–549

1939 and wrote amendments to the National beginning of the end for whatever power la- Labor Relations Act that outlawed several bor unions had achieved. successful collective strategies developed by Mills’s concept of a mass society also pre- the unions. Those amendments, delayed by vented him from seeing the organizational re- the need for good relations with organized sources available to African Americans labor during World War II, were passed as through their churches and colleges in the the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 (Gross, 1981). South and their involvement in the Democra- Still, both the industrial union movement tic Party in the North. This combination of and the civil rights movement, and later the power bases, coupled with the brilliant and social movements aided and inspired by the unanticipated use of strategic nonviolence, civil rights movement, show that the United which attracted the support of activists from States is not a “mass society” in the sense that predominantly white universities and white Mills meant it, i.e., one in which everyday Northern churches, led to dramatic changes people have no organizational bases and in the American power structure. The civil hence no way to develop their own opinions rights movement inspired other new move- and political trajectories. Despite his earlier ments that were based in the fast-growing research showing that people often come to universities of the era—especially the anti- their own opinions, usually through discus- war and women’s movements, and also the sions with family and friends, Mills com- environmental and consumer movements, pounded the problem by overstating the role and later the gay and lesbian movement. of the media in shaping public opinion. He But it turned out that these various move- thereby contributed to the mistaken belief ments had conflicts among themselves. In that most people are bamboozled, a belief particular, many white union members, espe- that leads to an overemphasis on ideology at cially in the building trades unions, saw the the expense of organizational factors in ex- civil rights, women’s, and environmental plaining why most wage workers do not ac- movements as threats to their good jobs and tively challenge those in power. status claims as proud white males. More- Although Mills agreed that the unions over, many white union members did not were, to some extent, an independent power like what they saw as the anti-Americanism base at the middle levels, he did not take the of the anti-war movement. They were not dynamic of class conflict seriously enough to crazy about the war, but they came to dislike contemplate that it might be possible for the protestors even more. Thus, and contrary unions to lose most of their hard-won gains. to Mills’s view, it was not lack of power In effect, he assumed a stalemate, and even bases, but lack of unity, that limited the pos- some degree of accommodation, between sibilities for progressive changes in the over- “sophisticated conservatives” in the power all power structure. elite and the “new men of power” in the Within this context, the New Deal coali- unions. Contrary to Mills, who believed that tion began to fragment within a year or two underlying class tensions were, by then, con- after Mills’s death in 1962. In particular, the fined within administrative and judicial struc- Voting Rights Act of 1965 set in motion a tures that would prevent the outbreak of train of events that led to the abandonment class struggle, we now know based on his- of the Democratic Party by the Southern rich torical research that there never was any real because they could no longer use the party acceptance of unions on the part of the so- to keep African Americans powerless. They phisticated conservatives (Gross, 1995). then carried a majority of white Southerners Moreover, the sophisticated conservatives into the Republican Party on the basis of ap- quietly resumed an all-out class war as early peals to racial resentments, religious funda- as 1965 due to a National Labor Relations mentalism, super-patriotism, and social issues Board decision that management had to bar- like gun control. The liberal-labor coalition in gain with unions on the possibility of out- the North simultaneously fractured, due to sourcing. It was a capitalist victory in the ef- white resistance to the integration of neigh- fort to reverse that decision, along with an at- borhoods, schools, and unions. The two po- tack on construction unions for their alleged litical parties became increasingly different role in the inflationary spiral, that spelled the nationwide along liberal-conservative lines,

Contemporary Sociology 35, 6 550–Review Essays with many white workers now on the con- al evidence leaves me in agreement with servative side. Mills that the economic, political, and military The nationwide white turn to the Republi- sectors are potentially independent power cans made it possible for Mills’s sophisticated bases, although I would add that power also conservatives to turn right on policy in the can be generated from a religious organiza- 1970s once the inner cities were calm again tional base, as seen in the civil rights move- and the power elite was faced with new eco- ment, the rise of the Christian Right, and the nomic problems due to spiking oil prices and Iranian Revolution. In terms of the United inflation, along with the challenges to their States, however, historical and sociological markets by the German and Japanese corpo- research leads me to place far more empha- rations they had decided to nurture after sis than Mills did on corporate capitalism and World War II in order to create a global cap- class conflict as the dominant factors in the italism. We know in detail about this decision power equation. Events and research in the to turn right because the issues were debat- United States since the 1960s also leave me ed in think tanks like The Brookings Institu- with a belief that there are potential power tion and policy-discussion forums like the bases for popular action that Mills over- Committee for Economic Development, looked, but with the proviso that these social where the majority said no to permanent movements are often in conflict with each wage and price controls, increased planning, other. Until organized labor, liberals, and left- and related liberal Keynesian policies. In- ists can forge a coalition of non-violent social stead, they advocated monetary policies that movements and focus on Democratic Party would cure inflation through throwing peo- primaries if and when they enter the electoral ple out of work, cutbacks in the welfare arena, the power elite will continue on its state, deregulation of key business sectors, merry way whatever the consequences for and continuing attacks on unions. The new- everyone else. ly formed Business Roundtable, which grad- ually emerged as part of the anti-union of- References fensive of the 1960s, took charge of the right Domhoff, G. W. 2006. Who Rules America? Power, turn. This, of course, brings us to the present Politics, and Social Change. Fifth ed. New moment, an almost unbroken march to the York: McGraw-Hill. Gross, J. A. 1981. The Reshaping of the National right on economic issues, along with an in- Labor Relations Board. Albany: State University creasing concentration of the wealth and in- of New York Press. come distributions. Gross, J. A. 1995. Broken Promise: The Subversion Finally, where do things stand in terms of of U.S. Labor Relations Policy. Philadelphia: Mills’s major theoretical claims? At the most Temple University Press. general level, the historical and cross-nation-

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