The book covers the research on economic inequality, including the social construction of racial categories, the uneven and stalled gender revolution, and the role of new educational forms and institutions in generating both equality and inequality.

Preface and Acknowledgments -- Resources for the Study of Poverty and Inequality -- Introduction -- The Stories We Tell About Inequality -- The Functions and Dysfunctions of Inequality -- Some Principles of Stratification -- Some Principles of Stratification -- Inequality by Design -- Inequality in Comparative Perspective -- Cross-Societal Differences -- A Compressed History of Inequality -- The Welfare State and Redistribution -- Trends in Economic Inequality -- Top Incomes in the Long Run of History -- The Race Between Education and Technology -- Unions, Norms, and the Rise in U.S. Wage Inequality -- Why Is Income Inequality Growing? -- Winner-Take-All Politics -- Leapfrogs and the Surge in Executive Pay -- The Winners of the Third Industrial Revolution -- The Structure of Inequality -- Marxian Theories of Class -- Alienation and Social Classes -- Classes in Capitalism and Pre-Capitalism -- Ideology and Class -- Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society -- A General Framework for the Analysis of Class Structure -- Class Conflict in the Capitalist World Economy -- Weberian Theories of Class -- Class, Status, Party -- Status Groups and Classes -- Open and Closed Relationships -- The Class Structure of the Advanced Societies -- Marxism and Class Theory -- Is There a Status Order in Contemporary British Society? -- Durkheimian Theories of Class -- The Division of Labor in Society -- The Changing Form of Inequality -- Classic Gradationalism -- Occupational Prestige in Comparative Perspective -- Occupational Grading and Occupational Prestige -- Prestige or Socioeconomic Scales in the Study of Occupational Achievement? -- Socioeconomic Indexes for Occupations -- The New Gradationalism? -- Foundations of a Rent-Based Class Analysis -- From Income Inequality to Economic Inequality -- The Ruling Class, Elites, and the Upper Class -- Classic Statements -- The Ruling Class -- The Power Elite -- Elites and Power -- Contemporary Statements -- Who Rules America? -- The Future of Intellectuals and the Rise of the New Class -- Bobos in Paradise -- Post-Communist Managerialism -- China's Evolving Oligarchy -- Poverty and the Underclass -- The Experience of Poverty -- Nickel and Dimed -- Low-Income Urban Fathers and the "Package Deal" of Family Life -- Poverty and the Economy -- Being Poor, Black, and American -- Poverty and the Great Recession -- The Effects of Politics and Institutions -- How Rich Countries Lift Up the Poor -- Taxing the Poor -- Neighborhoods and Segregation -- American Apartheid -- Legacies of Inequality -- Does Changing Neighborhoods Change Lives? -- The Legacy of Multigenerational Disadvantage -- How Important is Early Childhood? -- Skill Formation and the Economics of Investing in Disadvantaged Children -- The Long Reach of Early Childhood Poverty -- Stressing Out the Poor -- Incarceration and Poverty -- Incarceration and Social Inequality -- Who Gets Ahead? -- Class Mobility -- A Refined Model of Occupational Mobility -- Trends in Class Mobility -- Social Mobility in Europe -- It's a Decent Bet That Our Children Will Be Professors Too -- Income Mobility -- Intergenerational Income Mobility -- Advantage in Comparative Perspective -- Classic Models of Status Attainment -- The Process of Stratification -- Inequality -- Education and Reproduction -- Explaining Educational Differentials -- The Widening Academic Achievement Gap Between the Rich and the Poor -- Nonpersistent Inequality in Educational Attainment -- Determined to Succeed -- Toward a Theory of Inequality in Higher Education -- Does College Still Have Equalizing Effects? -- Who Benefits Most from College? -- The Educational and Early Occupational Attainment Process -- Ain't No Makin' It -- A New Social Psychological Model of Educational Attainment -- Labor Markets -- The Dual Labor Market -- An Outline of a Theory of the Matching of Persons to Jobs -- The Rise of Precarious Work -- Little Labor -- Social Capital, Networks, And Attainment -- The Strength of Weak Ties -- Social Networks and Status Attainment -- Structural Holes -- Networks, Race, and Hiring -- When Do Social Networks Increase Inequality? -- Race and Ethnicity -- Constructing Racial Categories -- Racial Formation in the United States -- The Dynamics of Racial Fluidity and Inequality -- Classic Modes Of Incorporation -- A Theory of Ethnic Antagonism -- The Immigrant Enclave -- Assimilation Theory for an Era of Unprecedented Diversity -- New Modes of Incorporation -- The New Second Generation -- Why Replenishment Strengthens Racial and Ethnic Boundaries -- Discrimination -- Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? -- Stereotype Threat and African-American Student Achievement -- Marked -- Are Racial and Ethnic Distinctions Declining in Significance? -- The Declining Significance of Race -- The Declining Significance of Race -- How Do Latino Immigrants Fit into the Racial Order? -- Are Recent Trends in Intermarriage Consistent with Assimilation Theory? -- Gender Inequality -- Labor Force Participation -- The Time Bind -- The Opt-Out Revolution -- Opting Out? -- Discrimination -- Orchestrating Impartiality -- Getting a Job -- Do Openly Gay Men Experience Employment Discrimination? -- Rethinking Employment Discrimination and Its Remedies -- Discrimination -- Sex Segregation -- The Structure and Process of Sex Segregation -- Revolving Doors -- Labor Markets as Queues -- Glass Ceilings in Corporate Law Firms -- Egalitarianism and Gender Inequality -- Gender Gap in Wages -- The Within-Gender Wage Gap -- Devaluation and the Pay of Comparable Male and Female Occupations -- Why Do Female Occupations Pay Less? -- The Sources of the Gender Pay Gap -- How Gender Intersects -- Why Race, Class, and Gender Matter -- Double Jeopardy -- A Stalling Out? -- The Gender Revolution -- The Anti-Feminist Backlash and Recent Trends in Gender Attitudes -- The Persistence of Gender Inequality -- The Consequences of Inequality -- Lifestyles -- Distinction -- The Social Stratification of Theater, Dance, and Cinema Attendance -- Unequal Childhoods -- Income Inequality and Income Segregation -- Politics and Attitudes -- What's the Matter with Kansas? -- The Realignment of U.S. Presidential Voting -- Health -- Health Inequalities and the Psychosocial Environment -- The Fundamentals of Fundamental Causality -- Why Do Mortality Disparities Persist? -- The Future of Inequality -- Industrialism and Post-Industrialism -- The Coming of Post-Industrial Society -- Social Foundations of Post-Industrial Economies -- The Labor Force and the Great Recession -- Post-Socialism -- Post-Socialist Stratification -- Making Capitalism Without Capitalists -- Elite Opportunity in Transitions from State Socialism -- Post-Modernity and High Modernity -- The Evolution of Modern Stratification Systems -- Social Justice and Social Divisions -- Globalization and Inequality -- Globalism's Discontents -- The New Geography of Global Income Inequality