San Antonio College Library

Of all the terms with which Americans define themselves as members of society, few are as elusive as "middle class." This book traces the emergence of a recognizable and self-aware "middle class" between the era of the American Revolution and the end of the nineteenth century. The author focuses on the development of the middle class in larger American cities, particularly Philadelphia and New York. He examines the middle class in all its complexity,...

The effects and ramifications of the collision of the traditional Puritan wor ethic and the new work ethic of the industrial revolution are critically investigated.

"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,...