This volume demonstrates how the conditions and styles of middle-class life represent modern society as a whole. By examining white-collar life, the text aims to distinguish a more typically "American" persona than the once-famous Western frontier character.

PART ONE: OLD MIDDLE CLASS 1. The World of the Small Entrepreneur 1. The Old Middle Classes 2. Property, Freedom and Security 3. The Self-Balancing Society 2. The Transformation of Property 1. The Rural Debacle 2. Business Dynamics 3. The Lumpen-Bourgeoisie 3. The Rhetoric of Competition 1. The Competitive Way of Life 2. The Independent Farmer 3. The Small Business Front 4. Political Persistence PART TWO: WHITE COLLAR WORLDS 4. The New Middle Class: I 1. Occupational Change 2. Industrial Mechanics 3. White-Collar Pyramids 5. The Managerial Demiurge 1. The Bureaucracies 2. From the Top to the Bottom 3. The Case of the Foreman 4. The New Entrepreneur 5. The Power of the Managers 6. Three Trends 6. Old Professions and New Skills 1. The Professions and Bureaucracy 2. The Medical World 3. Lawyers 4. The Professors 5. Business and the Professions 7. Brains, Inc. 1. Four Phases 2. The Bureaucratic Context 3. The Ideological Demand 4. The Rise of the Technician 8. The Great Salesroom 1. Types of Salesmen 2. The Biggest Bazaar in the World 3. Buyers and Floorwalkers 4. The Salesgirls 5. The Centralization of Salesmanship 6. The Personality Market 9. The Enormous File 1. The Old Office 2. Forces and Developments 3. The White-Collar Girl 4. The New Office 5. The White-Collar Hierarchy PART THREE: STYLES OF LIFE 10. Work 1. Meanings of Work 2. The Ideal of Craftsmanship 3. The Conditions of Modern Work 4. Frames of Acceptance 5. The Morale of the Cheerful Robots 6. The Big Slipt 11. The Status Panic 1. White-Collar Prestige 2. The Smaller City 3. The Metropolis 4. The Status Panic 12. Success 1. Patterns and Ideologies 2. The Educational Elevator 3. Origins and Mobilities 4. Hard Times 5. The Tarnished Image PART FOUR: WAYS OF POWER 13. The New Middle Class: II 1. Theories and Difficulties 2. Mentalities 3. Organizations 14. White-Collar Unionism 1. The Extent Organized 2. Acceptance and Rejection 3. Individual Involvement 4. The Shape of Unionism 5. Unions and Politics 15. The Politics of the Rearguard 1. Models of Consciousness 2. Political Indifference 3. The Mass Media 4. The Social Structure 5. U.S. Politics 6. The Rearguards Afterword by Russell Jacoby

"A book that persons of every level of the white collar pyramid should read and ponder. It will alert them to their condition for their better salvation."--Horace M. Kaellen, The New York Times (on the first edition)

"A book that persons of every level of the white collar pyramid should read and ponder. It will alert them to their condition for their better salvation."--Horace M. Kaellen, The New York Times (on the first edition) "A book that persons of every level of the white collar pyramid should read and ponder. It will alert them to their condition for their better salvation."--Horace M. Kaellen, The New York Times (on the first edition)

The late C. Wright Mills, former Professor of Sociology at Columbia University, was a leading critic of modern American civilization. His other books include The Sociological Imagination and The Power Elite (both OUP). Russell Jacoby is Professor of History at UCLA and a contributing writer to The Nation, The New York Times, and Harper's.