David Gartman is Professor of Sociology at the University of South Alabama.

This volume focuses on developing a theory of culture that reveals how ideas create and legitimize social inequality, using empirical case studies ranging from automobile design to architecture to compare and critique two of the most influential theories of culture in contemporary sociology. It questions to what extent our culture reflects class inequality, and to what extent our culture masks those inequalities through the sameness of unified mass culture.

1. Modern Culture as Mass Unity or Ranked Diversity 2. Reification of Consumer Products: A General History Illustrated by the American Automobile 3. Culture as Class Symbolization or Mass Reification? A Critique of Bourdieu's Distinction 4. Three Ages of the Automobile: The Cultural Logics of the Car 5. Why Modern Architecture Emerged in Europe, Not America: The New Class and the Aesthetics of Technocracy 6. Bourdieu's Theory of Cultural Change: Explication, Application, Critique 7. Bourdieu and Adorno: Converging Theories of Culture and Inequality