Includes bibliographical references and index.

I. Economic Growth and Distribution -- 1. The Human Capital Century -- 2. Inequality across the Twentieth Century -- 3. Skill-Biased Technological Change -- II. Education for the Masses in Three Transformations -- 4. Origins of the Virtues -- 5. Economic Foundations of the High School Movement -- 6. America's Graduation from High School -- 7. Mass Higher Education in the Twentieth Century -- III. The Race -- 8. The Race between Education and Technology -- 9. How America Once Led and Can Win the Race for Tomorrow.

"The Race between Education and Technology provides a careful historical analysis of the co-evolution of educational attainment and the wage structure in the United States through the twentieth century. The authors propose that the twentieth century was not only the American Century but also the Human Capital Century. The American educational system had always been less elitist than that of most other nations, and by 1900 the U.S. had begun to educate its masses at the secondary level. U.S. educational attainment remained at the forefront - until recently." "The book argues that technological change and education have been involved in a kind of race. During the first eight decades of the twentieth century technological change boosted the demand for educated workers, while the supply of educated workers more than kept pace. Educational attainment grew at exceptionally rapid rates, thereby lowering inequality at the same time incomes increased. America grew together. Technological change has continued to increase the demand for educated workers, but since about 1980 an educational slowdown has produced rising inequality. America has been growing apart. The authors discuss the complex reasons for this and what might be done to ameliorate it."--BOOK JACKET.