FEAR OF FALLING: The Inner Life of the Middle Class

A brilliant and insightful work that examines the insecurities of the middle class in an attempt to explain its turn to the right during the past two decades, Fear of Falling traces the myths about the middle class to their roots in the ambitions and anxieties that torment the group and that have led to its retreat from a responsible leadership role.

Ehrenreich charges that the U.S. middle class (especially professionals) has retreated from liberalism to a meaner, more selfish outlook. Within this shift, she claims, the New Right successfully waged a spurious, sloganeering campaign asserting that liberalism represents the interests of a narrow elite. In an analysis that should be a starting point for future debate, Ehrenreich, author of six books and columnist for Mother Jones and Ms. , exposes many myths and shibboleths, among them the media's "discovery" of an alleged general rightward drift, the supposed hedonism of yuppies and the notion that most hardhats are conservatives. Faulting liberals' "shameful silence" on Reagan's economic and social policies, she urges the middle class to join America's working-class majority in an effort to redistribute wealth and power downward to those who need it most.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The "central character" in this breezy foray into popular sociology is the "professional middle class," a loosely defined group the author castigates as elitist, self-absorbed, and selfish. Other players include the lower and working classes, the New Class (the liberal wing of the middle class), and yuppies, who are passionately denounced and, oddly, spoken of only in the past tense. Ehrenreich, an active socialist and author of The Hearts of Men ( LJ 7/83) and For Her Own Good ( LJ 8/78), concludes that the middle class needs to become more caring and inclusive ("welcoming everyone, until there remains no other class"). An interesting but ephemeral book.
- Kenneth F. Kister, Poynter Inst. for Media Studies, St. Petersburg, Fla.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.