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Promised Land: How the Rise of the Middle Class Transformed America, 1929-1968
Bottom of the pile
9
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
8/100Critics
10/100Scholars
Author:
David Stebenne
Publisher:
Scribner
Date:
July 14, 2020
A history of the the rise and fall of the middle class in the United Statesâwhy it ballooned at mid-century, came to dominate the nation, and ultimately shrank.
What The Reviewers Say
Stebenne acknowledges that the middle class, a term that describes 'a state of mind and a way of life' as well as a level of income, was neither monolithic nor completely homogenous. And Promised Land demonstrates that white males benefited from middle-class life far more than women or African-Americans. That said, his generalizations about the middle class are often vague, imprecise and open to question.
With a historian’s eye for detail and context, he examines factors that helped propel the growth of the middle class.
Stebenne’s account is well-researched, evenhanded, and illustrated with sketches of the life stories of representative middle-class couples. This concise, lucid account offers a solid overview of mid-20th-century social history..
... a provocative account.
