Promised Land: How the Rise of the Middle Class Transformed America, 1929-1968

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 help...