L'expression apparaît pour la première fois dans le titre d'un ouvrage du yougoslaveMilovan Djilas, publié en 1957 aux États-Unis: The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System[1].
(en) Milovan Đilas, The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System, San Diego, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983, 1957, paperbackéd., 214p., poche (ISBN978-0-15-665489-0, LCCN82025859).
(en) Marian (ed.) Sawer, Socialism and the New Class: Towards the Analysis of Structural Inequality Within Socialist Societies, Bedford Park, Australia, Australasian Political Studies Association, , 83p. (ISBN978-0-7258-0074-1, LCCN79308595).
(en) Alvin Ward Gouldner, The Future of Intellectuals and the Rise of the New Class: A Frame of Reference, Theses, Conjectures, Arguments, and an Historical Perspective on the Role of Intellectuals and Intelligentsia in the International Class Contest of the Modern Era, New York, Seabury Press, , 121p. (ISBN978-0-8164-9358-6, LCCN78024442)
(en) Hansfried Kellner et and Frank W. Heuberger (eds.), Hidden Technocrats: The New Class and New Capitalism, New Brunswick, Transaction Publishers, , 1reéd., 246p. (ISBN978-0-88738-443-1, LCCN91012907).