American Misfits and the Making of Middle-Class Respectability : Princeton University Press : 9780691176864 : 0691176868 : 01 Sep 2017 : How American respectability has been built by maligning those who don't make the grade How did Americans come to think of themselves as respectable members of the middle class? Was it just by earning a decent living? Or did it require something more? And if it did, what can we learn that may still apply? The quest for middle-class respectability in nineteenth-century America is usually described as a process of inculcating positive values such as honesty, hard work, independence, and cultural refinement. But clergy, educators, and community leaders also defined respectability negatively, by maligning individuals and groups??misfits??who deviated from accepted norms. Robert Wuthnow argues that respectability is constructed by ?othering? people who do not fit into easily recognizable, socially approved categories. He demonstrates this through an in-d