White collar; [electronic resource] the American middle classes.

Bibliographical references included in "Acknowledgements and sources" (p. 355-363).

Introduction -- 1. Old middle classes. 1. The world of the small entrepreneur -- 2. The transformation of property -- 3. The rhetoric of competition -- 2. White collar worlds. 4. The new middle class : I -- 5. The managerial demiurge -- 6. Old professions and new skills -- 7. Brains, Inc. -- 8. The great salesroom -- 9. The enormous file -- 3. Styles of life. 10. Work -- 11. The status panic -- 12. Success -- 4. Ways of power. 13. The new middle class : II -- 14. White-collar unionism -- 15. The politics of the rearguard -- Acknowledgments and sources -- Index.

This book is considered a standard on the subject of the new middle class in twentieth-century America. This landmark volume demonstrates how the conditions and styles of middle class life, originating from elements of both the newer lower and upper classes, represent modern society as a whole. By examining white-collar life, the author aimed to learn something about what was becoming more typically American than the once-famous Western frontier character. He painted a picture instead of a society that had evolved into a business-based milieu, viewing America instead as a great salesroom, an enormous file, and a new universe of management.