Our principal anxiety about the responses to “Farewell to theWorking Class?” concerns their strangely private character. In themain—the response of Barbara Weinstein excepted—the respondents seemto use the opportunity our article has provided simply to restate some of theirown previous positions. Often they engage neither with the substance of ourarticle nor, equally importantly, with its conciliatory tone. As a result, thechance further to depolemicize these important debates has been lost orotherwise evaded in a variety of reiterations.