What are the causes of inequality in capitalist society? In Understanding Class, leading left sociologist Erik Olin Wright returns to the fundamental concept underlying this question, and interrogates the different theories and paradigms that have arisen for understanding it. Beginning with class analysis in Marx and Weber, proceeding through the writings of Charles Tilly and others, and finally examining how class struggle and class compromise play out in contemporary society, Understanding Class provides a complex but compelling view of how to think through inequality.