White Collar

White Collar by C. Wright Mills 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, Mills 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. [Oxford University Press]