ABSTRACT
Social mobility, individualism, and the attending decline in traditional family values are characteristic of modern metropolitan society where there are few fixed landmarks and where "every man is constantly spurred on by the desire to rise and the fear of falling." But a traditional upper class composed of families with long established roots in the local community serves to balance the atomization of modern life, especially at the level of leadership. The chapter shows how those listed in the 1940 Social Register are less mobile and more familistic than the rest of those in Who's Who, before providing a more detailed analysis of the sociological characteristics of the "old family" core of the contemporary elite. The status of women in any society is an approximate index of family stability. On the whole, career women do not add to the stability of the home. Women are somewhat less likely than men to be members of the upper class.
