ABSTRACT
The evolution of the middle class in America is a special case in history. America is probably one of the few nations that began largely as a middle class, dividing later into the people and a leadership class, with the middle class holding its own. The history of America exemplifies, as that of few other countries, the role of the middle class as developers and refiners of opportunity. Members of the American middle class fought as stubbornly as their European counterparts whenever property, opportunity, and personal liberty were threatened. Another area in which no basic differences are revealed between the character of the American and the European middle class is in their respective attitudes toward religious authority and, one may add, toward politics. The American middle class has as fine a record of fighting for universal human rights and for freedom and equality, as any class, and possibly a superior record.
