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A social class is a group of people that have similar social and economical status.

At various times division of society into classes had various level of support from law. On one opposite of this were old Indian classes - castes, which one could neither enter after birth, nor leave. (Though this is the case only in relatively recent history.) On the other are classes in modern Western societies, which are very fluid and have little support from law.

Marxists explain history in terms of a war of classes between a rich, privileged class which possessed the Means of production (bourgeoisie), and a poor, unprivileged class (proletariat), which actually produced, while the fruits of the work were being mostly taken by members of the privileged class.

See also:

• proletariat, bourgeoisie
• politics, sociology
• Class Warfare

Particular social class groups:

• the Burakumin of Japan
• the untouchables of India

For other meaning of word class, see Class.

Further Reading

• Consumer's Republic, Lizabeth Cohen, Knopf, 2003, hardcover, 576 pages, ISBN 0375407502 (An analysis of the working out of class in the United States)