Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: achieving mediocrity -- What was glorious about the glorious 30? -- The rise of professional middle-class labor -- Working-class agency in place -- "At least we ought to be able to" -- There is a genuine working-class culture -- Categorical differences in class cultures -- Ceding control to gain control -- Taking it and living in the moments -- Working-class realism -- Epilogue: two good class cultures.

Abstract
This book attempts to determine the differences between working-class and middle-class cultures in the United States. The book's author writes as a now middle-class professional with a working-class upbringing, explaining the various ways the two cultures conflict and complement each other, illustrated by his own lived experiences. Set in a historical framework that reflects on how both class cultures developed, adapted, and survived through decades of historical circumstances, the book challenges professional middle-class views of both the working-class and themselves. In the end, the author argues for the creation of a cross-class coalition of what he calls “standard-issue professionals” with both hard-living and settled-living working people and outlines some policies that could help promote such a unification if the two groups had a better understanding of their differences and how to use those differences to their advantage. The book mixes personal stories and theoretical concepts to give us a compelling look inside the current complex position of the working-class in American culture and a view of what it could be in the future. Provided by publisher.

Description based on print version record.