A groundbreaking work of history about the American middle class--its
rise, why it faltered, and who truly benefited from its dominance.
In Promised Land, David Stebenne "invites us to remember those decades
in which both the middle class and the Democratic Party were ascendant"
(The Wall Street Journal). The story begins with the pervasive income
and wealth inequality of the pre-New Deal period. What followed began a
great leveling. World War II brought transformative elements that also
helped expand the middle class. For decades, economic policies and
cultural practices strengthened the trend, and by the 1960s the middle
class dictated American tastes from books to TV shows to housing to
food, creating a powerful political constituency with shared interests
and ideals.
The disruptive events of 1968, however, signaled the end of this
expansion. The cultural clashes and political protests of that era
turned a spotlight on how the policies and practices of the middle-class
era had privileged white men over women, people of color, and other
marginalized groups, as well as military force over diplomacy and
economic growth over environmental protection. These conflicts, along
with shifts in policy and economic stagnation, started shrinking that
vast middle class and challenging its values, trends that continue to
the present day.
Now, as the so-called "end of the middle class" dominates the news cycle
and politicians talk endlessly about how to revive it, Stebenne's vivid
history of a social revolution that produced a new and influential way
of life reveals the fascinating story of how it was achieved and the
considerable costs incurred along the way. "Well-researched,
evenhanded...this concise, lucid account offers a solid overview of
mid-20th-century social history" (Publishers Weekly) and shines more
than a little light on our possible future.
