White Collar

This volume, a second edition of what has become a major work of American sociological thought, 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. In his thesis, 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. Russell Jacoby, author of "The End of Utopia" and "The Last Intellectuals" contributes an afterword to this edition, in which he reflects on the impact the book had at its original publication and considers what it means to society in the 21st century.