As with Bourdieu, Hoggart examines taste in a literal sense. Hoggart breaks down the eating habits of the English working class and explores them in detail. His findings are not that different from Bourdieu. In the cases of both English and French working class, the preference is for more savory, filling meals. The fact that Bourdieu and Hoggart reached the same conclusions suggests that this taste in food is not merely a coincidence of preference. It is logical that those in the working class would prefer food that is hearty and easily consumed. It is interesting to see that these food preferences remained largely unchanged, regardless of the gulf of time and nationality that separates the studies.

On the whole, Hoggart's study comes off as being not nearly as refined as Bourdieu's. Hoggart himself maintains that his findings were largely based on his own memories and experiences. While this fact may call the scientific accuracy of the study into question, it does provide a certain sense of authenticity lacking from Bourdieu. Hoggart's findings are contingent of lived experience and evidence, unlike Bourdieu who seems to rely primarily on surveys.

In the selection from Williams he states: “the importance of literature and the arts is that they offer supreme examples of such organization, and that in doing so they provide 'values' (not prescriptions or messages, but examples of a necessary common process). It is through experience of and attention to such values that the wider common reorganization can be initiated and maintained. It is in this sense that 'poetry can save us': 'it is a perfectly possible means of overcoming chaos'” (247).

Williams sentiments echo Gramsci. Gramsci maintains that The Count of Monte Cristo is the exemplar of serial literature as it is imbued with a sense of democracy lacking from other serial works. Gramsci's assertion is that if serial works were to adopt this notion of democracy they would have a greater moral and social value. It seems in the aforementioned passage, Williams is echoing this sentiment. The value Williams is describing is the very one Gramsci had hoped would appear in popular literature. This value the Gramsci described and hoped for was the one Williams saw as a means of overcoming chaos.