This book traces the institutions and movements that helped produce a broad American middle class after the Depression and World War II. Union contracts raised wages, improved benefits, and gave workers a collective voice, while civil-rights movements challenged discrimination in law, employment, education, and public life.
The chapters connect the postwar labor movement with modern civil rights and the legacies of Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez. They also examine the exclusions that prevented prosperity from reaching everyone equally.
Labor rights and civil rights strengthen one another. A durable middle class depends on fair wages, equal opportunity, democratic participation, and institutions strong enough to prevent wealth and power from becoming permanently concentrated.