Re-Reading this in 2011 is spooky. ( )

I started to read this book because I have read other books by the same publisher that have been thought provocative, and I thought this might have something new to say. I found it to be mostly a rehash on things that were down in the past to create and shore up the middle class. While I am in total agreement with the author's objectives and politics, I found some of his supporting arguments less than convincing and detracting from having the work taken seriously. Reference to group adjustments to group movements as opposed to alpha-male or female domination serving as determinants does not equate with democracy being hardwired to our DNA. It would have been better left out since the author did not care to discuss the research more fully nor to develop its relevancy to the middle class. The other troublesome aspect of this argument is that if democracy and its relationship to the middle class were such a genetic disposition, then surely history would show a strong evidence for this tendency.

I would up skimming the book, and felt like the author was preaching to the choir in case its members didn't know the background Roosevelt era reforms and other American historical developments affecting the middle class, but I doubt that anything in this volume would convert a conservative deconstructionist which is what is needed to pursue his objectives.