ABSTRACT
The ideals of meritocracy and equality for all regardless of individual circumstances are very much imbued in American lore. Yet despite these ideals, the reality is that
social inequality is a deeply embedded structural feature of American society and has been since its colonial beginnings. Powerfully shaping social inequality in the United States are social policies, laws, social institutions, and the prevailing ideologies and values of the day (Glenn, 2002; Hochschild & Weaver, 2007; Massey, 2007). As will be demonstrated in Part 2 of this book, social policy has been central not only to the creation and maintenance of social inequality but also to the many efforts to mitigate its wide-ranging deleterious effects. For these reasons, social inequality and social policy are inextricably entwined.
