Collected from a series of articles published in the New York Times in the spring of 2005.

Shadowy lines that still divide / Janny Scott, David Leonhardt -- Life at the top in America isn't just better, it's longer / Janny Scott -- A marriage of unequals / Tamar Lewin -- Up from the holler : living in two worlds, at home in neither / Tamar Lewin -- On a Christian mission to the top / Laurie Goodstein, David D. Kirkpatrick -- The college dropout boom / David Leonhardt -- No degree, and no way back to the middle / Timothy Egan -- Fifteen years on the bottom rung / Anthony DePalma -- When the Joneses wear jeans / Jennifer Steinhauer -- The five-bedroom, six-figure rootless life / Peter T. Kilborn -- Old Nantucket warily meets the new / Geraldine Fabrikant -- Richest are leaving even the rich far behind / David Cay Johnston -- In fiction, a long history of fixation on the social gap / Charles McGrath -- Angela Whitiker's climb / Isabel Wilkerson -- Encounters with class -- Appendix. The New York Times poll on class.