According to our national myth, all Americans are "middle class, " but rarely has such a widely-used term been so poorly defined. Do we identify the middle class by a house in the suburbs, a white collar job, or a political outlook that is right-of-center? Or is the middle class in fact more complex? In an effort to bring greater clarity to our understanding of what it means to be middle class, the scholars assembled in "The Middling Sorts" approach the concept as a group of culturally contested ideas, practices, and things. Whether they focus on the antebellum middle class, male corporate culture, or the subtle resistance of Cold War housewives, the contributors - who are among the hottest social and cultural historians of the United States at work today - provide much-needed context to the subject of class in America.