Books by Claude S. Fischer

The telephone looms large in our lives, as ever present in modern societies as cars and television. This title presents the social history of this vital technology - how we encountered, tested, and ultimately embraced it with enthusiasm. It explores how, when, and why Americans started communicating in this manner.

Challenges arguments that expanding inequality is the natural, perhaps necessary, accompaniment of economic growth. This book stresses that economic fortune depends more on social circumstances than on IQ, which is itself a product of society.

Our nation began with the simple phrase 'We the People.' But who were and are 'We'? This title draws on historical, psychological, and social research to answer that question by tracking the evolution of American character and culture over three centuries.