Class Matters

The acclaimed New York Times series on social class in Americaۥand its implications for the way we live our lives

We Americans have long thought of ourselves as unburdened by class distinctions. We have no hereditary aristocracy or landed gentry, and even the poorest among us feel that they can become rich through education, hard work, or sheer gumption. And yet social class remains a powerful force in American life.

In Class Matters, a team of New York Times reporters explores the ways in which classۥdefined as a combination of income, education, wealth, and occupationۥinfluences destiny in a society that likes to think of itself as a land of opportunity. We meet individuals in Kentucky and Chicago who have used education to lift themselves out of poverty and others in Virginia and Washington whose lack of education holds them back. We meet an upper-middle-class family in Georgia who moves to a different town every few years, and the newly rich in Nantucket whose mega-mansions have driven out the longstanding residents. And we see how class disparities manifest themselves at the doctor's office and at the marriage altar.

For anyone concerned about the future of the American dream, Class Matters is truly essential reading.

"Class Matters is a beautifully reported, deeply disturbing, portrait of a society bent out of shape by harsh inequalities. Read it and see how you fit into the problem orۥbetter yetۥthe solution!"
ۥBarbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch