Upper Class in modern societies is the social class composed of people who hold the highest social status, usually are the wealthiest members of class society, and wield the greatest political power.[1] According to this view, the upper class is generally distinguished by immense wealth which is passed on from generation to generation.[2] Prior to the 20th century, the emphasis was on aristocracy, which emphasized generations of inherited noble status, not just recent wealth.[3]
Because the upper classes of a society may no longer rule the society in which they are living, they are often referred to as the old upper classes, and they are often culturally distinct from the newly rich middle classes that tend to dominate public life in modern social democracies. According to the latter view held by the traditional upper classes, no amount of individual wealth or fame would make a person from an undistinguished background into a member of the upper class as one must be born into a family of that class and raised in a particular manner to understand and share upper class values, traditions, and cultural norms. The term is often used in conjunction with terms like upper-middle class, middle class, and working class as part of a model of social stratification.
^Bartels, Larry (8 April 2014). "Rich people rule!". Archived from the original on 17 April 2016. Retrieved 17 July 2016 – via www.washingtonpost.com.
^Akhbar-Williams, Tahira (2010). "Class Structure". In Smith, Jessie C. (ed.). Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. p. 322. ISBN 978-0-313-35796-1. Archived from the original on 21 November 2015. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
^Gregory Mantsios (2010). "Class in America – 2009". In Rothenberg, Paula S. (ed.). Race, class, and gender in the United States: an integrated study (8th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. p. 179. ISBN 978-1-4292-1788-0.
UpperClass in modern societies is the social class composed of people who hold the highest social status, usually are the wealthiest members of class...
the United Kingdom was organised on a class basis, with the House of Lords representing the hereditary upperclass and the House of Commons representing...
upper middle class is the social group constituted by higher status members of the middle class. This is in contrast to the term lower middle class,...
The American upperclass is a social group within the United States consisting of people who have the highest social rank, due to a lineage associated...
most common being the working class, middle class, and upperclass. Membership of a social class can for example be dependent on education, wealth, occupation...
In sociology, the upper middle class of the United States is the social group constituted by higher-status members of the middle class in American society...
levels such as high upperclass, upperclass, upper middle class, middle class, lower middle class, lower lower middle class and lower class, while others disagree...
ruling upperclass of a capitalist society. In English, the word "bourgeoisie", as a term referring to French history, refers to a social class oriented...
well as those who travelled there for leisure. Members of the British upperclasses would go to the countryside for sporting events organised by the owners...
honours degrees classified into First Class, Upper Second Class (2:1), Lower Second Class (2:2), and Third Class based on weighted averages of marks. The...
"UpperClass Twit of the Year" is a comedy sketch that was seen on the 1970 Monty Python's Flying Circus episode "The Naked Ant" (series 1, episode 12)...
middle or upper middle class associated with the higher realms of the middle class, hence the name. In American society, the middle class may be divided...
living, thereby increasing the size of the urban lower class. In the 1980s, Haiti's upperclass constituted as little as 2 percent of the total population...
Social classes in Iran have been divided up into upperclass, propertied middle class, salaried middle class, working class, independent farmers, and rural...
Canada. The Titanic's first-class list was a "who's who" of the prominent upperclass in 1912. A single-person berth in first class cost between £30 (equivalent...
terms of three social classes: an upperclass, a middle class, and a lower class; in turn, each class can be subdivided into an upper-stratum, a middle-stratum...
ticket holders are given a free upgrade according to seat availability in upperclass. If this happens the other RAC ticket holder can then convert the 2 seats...
The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded approximately by 96th Street to...
Islington: One by one, many of the working class neighbourhoods of London have been invaded by the middle-classes—upper and lower. Shabby, modest mews and cottages—two...
and practices that are set up to benefit the upperclass at the expense of the lower class. Social class refers to the grouping of individuals in a hierarchy...
The planter class was a racial and socioeconomic caste which emerged in the Americas during European colonization in the early modern period. Members...
Stevenson identified the middle class as those falling between the upper-class and the working-class. The middle class includes: professionals, managers...