Includes bibliographical references (pages 267-283) and index.

"The untold story of what once made America's economy great--and why it now keeps falling into crisis." -- inside front book jacket flap.

For nearly two centuries the best jobs in the United States were walled off to everyone but white men. After World War II, women, immigrants and black men began to tear those walls down. They built the greatest middle class in human history-- but the steady disappearance of good jobs, followed by economic crises, locked millions of people out of the American Dream. Tankersley traces the origins and destiny of the American middle class, examines why it is under siege-- and reveals a path to the revival of what can again be a great American economy. -- adapted from jacket

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