Gans, Herbert

Related Category: Sociology: Biographies

(găns), 1927–, American sociologist and educator, b. Cologne, Germany. He came to the United States in 1940 and became a U.S. citizen. In The Urban Villagers (2d ed. 1982), an important analysis of second-generation Italian Americans, he argues that ethnicity is partly a manifestation of deeply rooted class dynamics. His other writings include The Levittowners (1967), People and Plans (1968), Popular Culture and High Culture (1974), Deciding What's News (1979), The War against the Poor (1995), and Making Sense of America (1999).