The son also rises: surnames and the history of social mobility

Abstract

Preface ix 1 Introduction: Of Ruling Classes and Underclasses: The Laws of Social Mobility 1 PART I Social Mobility by Time and Place 2 Sweden: Mobility Achieved? 19 3 The United States: Land of Opportunity 45 4 Medieval England: Mobility in the Feudal Age 70 5 Modern England: The Deep Roots of the Present 88 6 A Law of Social Mobility 107 7 Nature versus Nurture 126 PART II Testing the Laws of Mobility 8 India: Caste, Endogamy, and Mobility 143 9 China and Taiwan: Mobility after Mao 167 10 Japan and Korea: Social Homogeneity and Mobility 182 11 Chile: Mobility among the Oligarchs 199 12 The Law of Social Mobility and Family Dynamics 212 13 Protestants, Jews, Gypsies, Muslims, and Copts: Exceptions to the Law of Mobility? 228 14 Mobility Anomalies 253 PART III The Good Society 15 Is Mobility Too Low? Mobility versus Inequality 261 16 Escaping Downward Social Mobility 279 Appendix 1: Measuring Social Mobility 287 Appendix 2: Deriving Mobility Rates from Surname Frequencies 296 Appendix 3: Discovering the Status of Your Surname Lineage 301 Data Sources for Figures and Tables 319 References 333 Index 349