“Is America Becoming a More Class-Based Society?”

Understanding the causes and consequences of large-scale social change has been a primary responsibility of social inquiry since the emergence of social science in the nineteenth century. Many social changes are so dramatic and visible that they come to be labeled “revolutions”—the industrial revolution, the democratic revolution, the women’s revolution, the civil rights revolution, and even the internet revolution. Understanding major changes of this sort is important both because they encourage intellectual breakthroughs by social scientists and because they are important to our fellow citizens.