Publication year 2005
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Family, Social Class, Colonialism, Nation, Politics & Government, War, Justice
Tags Historical Fiction, American Literature
Class
The titles in the Social Class Collection explore the historical and contemporary implications of social class and class division in cultures around the world. Representing a diverse range of perspectives, cultures, and societies, the selections in this Collection span a broad range of genres and forms, including essays, biographies, and fiction.
Midnight Rider
Mildred Pierce
Miles Morales Suspended
Millionaires for the Month
Mind of My Mind
Miracle's Boys
Miss Julie
Moll Flanders
Money Hungry
Moon Over Manifest
More Than Just Race
Mortal Engines
Moses, Man of the Mountain
Mothering Sunday
Mother Mary Comes to Me
Moth Smoke
Mountains Beyond Mountains
Mr. Mercedes
Mr Stink
Much Madness is divinest Sense—
Publication year 2005
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Family, Social Class, Colonialism, Nation, Politics & Government, War, Justice
Tags Historical Fiction, American Literature
Publication year 1941
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Loyalty & Betrayal, Social Class, Mothers, Daughters & Sons, Mental Health, Marriage, Gender Identity
Tags Mystery & Crime Fiction, Psychological Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction, Relationships, Parenting, Social Class, Business & Economics, Finance, Great Depression, American Literature, Love & Sexuality, Gender & Feminism, World History, Historical Fiction, Classic Fiction
Publication year 2023
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Perseverance, Race, Appearance & Reality, Social Class, Education, Justice
Tags Fantasy, Children`s Literature
Publication year 2020
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Friendship, Conflict, Coming of Age, Animals, Family, Teamwork, Social Class
Tags Realistic Fiction
Publication year 1977
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Conflict, Perseverance, Forgiveness, Loneliness, Love, Shame & Pride, Gender Identity, Mental Health, Race, Coming of Age, Future, Appearance & Reality, Family, Teamwork, Self Discovery, Social Class, Community, Politics & Government, Justice, Power & Greed, Safety & Danger
Tags Science Fiction, Fantasy, Gender & Feminism
Publication year 1996
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family, Coming of Age, Conflict, Forgiveness, Grief, Guilt, Loneliness, Regret, Masculinity, Mental Health, Race, Death, The Past, Siblings, Social Class, Community, Loyalty & Betrayal
Tags Realistic Fiction, African American Literature
Miracle’s Boys (2000) is a young adult novel by Jaqueline Woodson. The novel tells the story of three brothers, ages 21, 15, and 12, coping with the sudden death of their mother a year before. The middle brother, Charlie, recently returned home from a juvenile detention facility, where he was serving a two-year sentence for attempting to rob a candy store at gun point. Set in a Puerto Rican neighborhood in New York City, Miracle’s... Read Miracle's Boys Summary
Publication year 1888
Genre Play, Fiction
Themes Conflict, Femininity, Sexual Identity, Social Class, Power & Greed
Tags Drama, Naturalism, Scandinavian Literature, Social Class, Education, Education, Dramatic Literature, World History, Classic Fiction
Miss Julie is a naturalistic play produced in 1888 by the Swedish playwright and novelist August Strindberg. The play follows the acute romantic entanglement of the three characters: Miss Julie, a young aristocratic woman; Jean, her father’s well-read and well-traveled valet; and Kristine, the cook. Through the psychological battle of wills between Julie and the ruthless Jean, the play explores themes of Class Conflict and Social Hierarchy, Gender Roles and Power Dynamics, and The Complexity... Read Miss Julie Summary
Publication year 1722
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Femininity, Good & Evil, Marriage, Social Class, Colonialism, Power & Greed, Truth & Lies, Gender Identity
Tags Classic Fiction, Historical Fiction, British Literature, World History
Published in 1722, The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe tells the life story of a woman who carves her own path through late 17th-century England and North America. Like Defoe’s first novel, Robinson Crusoe, this work also tells the tale of a singular individual who overcomes adversity—in her case, extreme poverty—to become considerably wealthy. Moll Flanders is a wife, a thief, a sex worker, and an impresario. She is... Read Moll Flanders Summary
Publication year 2001
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Conflict, Social Class, Friendship, Family
Tags Realistic Fiction, Poverty, African American Literature, Children`s Literature, Modern Classic Fiction, Urban Development
Money Hungry is a 2001 middle-grade novel by American author Sharon G. Flake published by Little, Brown and Company. A Coretta Scott King Honor book, Money Hungry is the first book in Flake’s Raspberry Hill series. It explores 13-year-old Raspberry Hill’s hunger for money and the lengths to which she will go to acquire it. Stemming from a period of homelessness in her childhood, Raspberry will do almost anything to earn enough money to move... Read Money Hungry Summary
Publication year 2010
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Conflict, Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Perseverance, Fear, Guilt, Hope, Loneliness, Regret, Nostalgia, Memory, Shame & Pride, Childhood & Youth, Coming of Age, The Past, Death, Appearance & Reality, Place, Daughters & Sons, Fathers, Family, Friendship, Community, Social Class, Economics, Immigration, Education, War, Politics & Government, Nation, Equality, Good & Evil, Justice, Literature, Safety & Danger, Truth & Lies, Power & Greed, Trust & Doubt
Tags Historical Fiction, Children`s Literature, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Coming of Age, Realistic Fiction, World History
Moon Over Manifest is a 2010 novel by author Claire Vanderpool. It relates the story of 12-year-old Abilene Tucker, a drifting girl in search of her father, a home, and a sense of belonging. When the novel starts, her father, Gideon Tucker, has just sent Abilene to the Kansas town of Manifest, claiming that he can’t take her to Iowa, where he is allegedly taking a railroad job. It is 1936, and the Great Depression... Read Moon Over Manifest Summary
Publication year 2009
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Community, Social Class
Tags Sociology, Black Lives Matter, Race & Racism, Education, Education, Urban Development, Social Justice, Poverty, Politics & Government
More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City is a 2009 nonfiction book by William Julius Wilson, a Harvard University professor of sociology. In his book, Wilson examines the structural and, more controversially, the cultural contributors to the poverty, high incarceration rate, and social problems faced by inner-city African American males today. Wilson’s central contention is that African Americans have suffered disproportionately from the impacts of nonracial political and global economic... Read More Than Just Race Summary
Publication year 2001
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Forgiveness, Memory, Conflict, Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Perseverance, Fear, Love, Revenge, Social Class, Colonialism, Community, War, Good & Evil, Justice, Fate, Power & Greed, Truth & Lies
Tags Science Fiction, Fantasy, Action & Adventure, Technology, Social Class
Publication year 1939
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Conflict, Perseverance, Hope, Place, Family, Social Class, Colonialism, Nation, Politics & Government, Equality, Justice, Power & Greed, Religion & Spirituality
Tags Education, Education, African American Literature, Historical Fiction, Fairy Tale & Folklore, Classic Fiction, Religion & Spirituality
Moses, Man of the Mountain is an allegorical novel by African-American author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston. The novel reimagines the life of Moses and the biblical narrative of the Exodus from Egypt with several important changes, including the use of African American dialect, slang, and folklore. Throughout the novel, Hurston draws allegorical parallels between the enslavement of the Hebrew people in Egypt and the enslavement of people of African descent in the United States... Read Moses, Man of the Mountain Summary
Publication year 2016
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Social Class, Literature, Memory
Tags Romance, Historical Fiction, British Literature, World History
Mothering Sunday is a 2016 novella written by British author Graham Swift. Like much of Swift’s writing, it has a psychological bent, exploring the relationship between history and memory. Swift won the Booker Prize for his 2006 novel Last Orders and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. This guide uses the 2016 Scribner edition of the text.Plot SummaryIt is March 30, 1924 in the upper-middle-class house of Beechwood in Berkshire, Southern England... Read Mothering Sunday Summary
Publication year 2025
Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction
Themes Grief, Femininity, Daughters & Sons, Family, Mothers, Social Class, Education, Literature
Tags Memoir & Autobiography
Publication year 2000
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Power & Greed, Social Class, Guilt, Justice
Tags Asian Literature, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction, Asian Literature
Mohsin Hamid’s first novel, Moth Smoke, examines class and privilege, drugs, and sex in 1990s Pakistan. The novel plots the unraveling of Darashikoh Shezad’s life. When the book opens, Daru is on trial for the death of a boy, and the text examines the events leading up to this false accusation. Multiple narrators chart Daru’s moral decline, and the examination of Daru’s choices from different angles asks the reader to be the judge of Daru’s... Read Moth Smoke Summary
Publication year 2003
Genre Biography, Nonfiction
Themes Equality, Social Class, Economics
Tags Health, Science & Nature, Social Justice, World History, Biography
Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World is a 2003 nonfiction book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder. It is an expansion of “The Good Doctor,” a 2000 article for The New Yorker and the winner of the 2004 Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage. The book profiles Dr. Paul Edward Farmer, co-founder of Partners in Health, as he treats patients in Haiti and... Read Mountains Beyond Mountains Summary
Publication year 2014
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Social Class, Good & Evil, Mental Health
Tags Horror & Suspense, Mystery & Crime Fiction
Mr. Mercedes (2014) is American author Stephen King’s first hard-boiled detective story. King is one of the most prolific writers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, best known for his iconic horror novels like It (1986), Carrie (1974), Pet Sematary (1983), and The Shining (1977). However, King’s work crosses over into many different genres, including supernatural, suspense thriller, mystery, science fiction, and fantasy. He writes novels, short stories, and nonfiction, and his work... Read Mr. Mercedes Summary
Publication year 2009
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Forgiveness, Loneliness, Coming of Age, Appearance & Reality, Family, Marriage, Mothers, Siblings, Social Class, Community, Justice
Publication year 1890
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Mental Health, Order & Chaos, Appearance & Reality, Social Class
Tags Free Verse