Middle Class Moves Up on Presidential Campaign Agenda

Ordinary Americans are in the spotlight in the current campaign for the White House ("Why 'Middle-Class Economics' Has Moved Front and Center for 2016," The Christian Science Monitor, April 22, 2015). Both Republicans and Democrats seem to be courting the middle class with talk of bettering their situation through economic reforms.

Review selected hard copy and online library books related to the middle class at LSC-CyFair Branch Library. Click the title of a listed item, select the "Request" button in the listing, and enter your library card number and PIN for each title you want to reserve for pick up at the library.

Use these subject words and phrases to find more in the library catalog:

• American Dream
• income distribution United States
• middle class United States
• social classes United States
• social mobility United States

"Struggling Middle Class"

(1:43 minutes) from the Films on Demand video database - Films Media Group, 2014.

Note: Login with your My LoneStar login or Lone Star College ID/library card barcode number to view the video off campus.

"(Senator Elizabeth) Warren discusses how Washington only works for the wealthy. She calls for increased minimum wage and lowered student loan interest rates—issues Republicans refuse to compromise on." - video excerpt

Middle Class Meltdown in America: Causes, Consequences, and Remedies by Kevin T. Leicht and Scott T. Fitzgerald
Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, 2014.
call number: 305.55 Lei

". . .This short text provides a sociological understanding of the causes and consequences of growing middle class inequality, with an abundance of supporting, empirical data. The book also addresses what we, as individuals and as a society, can do to put middle class Americans on a sounder footing." - publisher's summary excerpt

The Price of Paradise: The Costs of Inequality and a Vision for a More Equitable America by David Dante Troutt
New York University Press, 2013.
call number: 305.509 Tro

"Many American communities, especially the working and middle class, are facing chronic problems: fiscal stress, urban decline, environmental sprawl, failing schools, mass incarceration, political isolation, disproportionate foreclosures, and severe public health risks. . .Through a careful presentation of this crisis at the national level and also through on-the-ground observation in communities like Newark, Detroit, Houston, Oakland, and New York City that all face similar hardships, he makes the case that America's tendency to separate into enclaves in urban areas or to sprawl off on one's own in suburbs gravely undermines the American dream. . .The Price of Paradise is a multilayered exploration of the legal, economic, and cultural forces that contribute to the squeeze on the middle class, the hidden dangers of growing income and wealth inequality, and environmentally unsustainable growth and consumption patterns." - publisher's summary excerpt