xxii Introduction: The American Dream and the Middle Class
of themselves and being thought of by others as middle class—as having achieved
the “American dream.”
But the American middle class, and by extension the American dream, has come
under siege. Vice President Joseph Biden, substituting for President Barack Obama,
but speaking words that echoed the president’s own sentiments, said the following
in The White House Weekly Address in 2014:
Folks, it’s long past time to cut the middle class back into the deal, so they
can benefit from the economic growth they helped create. Folks, there used
to be a bargain in this country supported by Democrats and Republicans, busi-
ness and labor. The bargain was simple. If an employee contributed to the
growth and profitability of the company, they got to share in the profits and
the benefits as well. That’s what built the middle class. It’s time to restore the
bargain, to deal the middle class back in. Because, folks, when the middle class
does well, everybody does well—the wealthy get wealthier and the poor have
a way up. (Biden 2014)
Lest you think this assault on the middle class has just materialized, consider the
melancholy of the first three paragraphs of a newspaper story from 1977:
By the accepted rules of the game, Mike Ruddy has punched all the right tick-
ets. He grew up in a middle class neighborhood, went to college, earned a
master’s degree, married, bought a house and carved out a career for himself.
But at 29 he has concluded that he “just can’t live up to my middle class
expectations.
“You always think you’ll be better off than your parents, but these days you
can’t seem to do it,” he says solemnly. “At times in the last few weeks, perhaps
morbidly, I’ve been asking myself, maybe this is it, maybe things will never get
any better.” (Peterson 1977)
The middle-class “blues” have been building up for quite some time now, which
only makes our contemporary qualms that much more scary.
What exactly does it mean to be middle class and what, in partic u lar, is under
siege? These two volumes explore these issues in their myriad forms. The anxieties
of the contemporary American middle class may have had their origin in an under-
performing economy, but they have manifested themselves in all aspects of middle-
class life, including the bitterness of our politics, the uncertainty associated with
the erosion of the mid-20th-century compact between capital and labor, the struggles
related to finding a safe space in a failing educational system, the fears related to
the jostling for a place in a “good neighborhood,” our failure to eliminate some long-
standing health scourges and the rise of brand-new health problems, our nagging
fear of crime, the disorienting changing norms of our society, and how culture and
media have both reflected a changing society and caused it to change.
This book explores the disparate issues associated with worrying about becom-
ing, being, and staying middle class in contemporary America. It is divided into
sections that correspond to the anx i eties listed previously. Each section begins with
