Thank you for your question about the class division between the lower and upper class. This is a pretty big subject! I think that once you start your research, you'll find that you'll need to narrow down your focus to one, maybe two factors contributing to this class division. Examples of factors that you might want to explore that could contribute to class division:
- Income level
- Ethnic background
- Gender
- Family size/structure (parents married? Divorced? etc)
- Occupation (blue collar, white collar, "working class", etc.)
- Education level
Also, I think you may want to think about a time period -- I suspect you could chase the origins to today's class division back hundreds of years, if you wanted.
These two points (narrowing down the factors to focus on, and a time period) may be things you decide on as you begin your research and start looking at sources, so don't worry if you're not sure just yet. You may find an interesting article that helps you decide what to focus on, so don't be afraid to browse, or try a few different keywords when you search to see what you get!
Try searching these keywords individually or in pairs:
- "class division"
- "social stratification"
- "class distinctions"
- "upper class"
- "lower class"
- "middle class"
- "socioeconomic status"
For Articles and eBooks, use the keywords above by going to the Library Homepage and clicking on Articles to find the library's research databases.
(As of fall 2022, you no longer need an HFC library card (barcode) to access the library’s databases from off campus. Please use your HFC username and password to log in.)
Once you click on Articles, use your search terms in these databases:
Again, I need to stress that this is a topic that you are going to find it necessary to narrow down, but the best way to decide how you want to do that sometimes is just to dive in and see which books/articles seem most interesting to you, and then adjust the keywords you use to search to reflect that.
Please let us know if anything here needs clarifying, or if you have any other questions!