By Jennifer Raymond Dresden, Associate Director of the Democracy & Governance Program

Richard V. Reeves.  Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That’s a Problem, and What to Do About It.  Brookings Institution Press. 2017

Our second installation of the Democracy and Governance Summer Reading Group takes on questions of class and inequality in the United States.  Over the next few weeks we’ll be reading Richard Reeves’ new book Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That’s a Problem, and What to Do About It.

The book has gotten significant attention for its claim that debates about “the top 1%” are actually misplaced and that much more attention ought to be paid to the wealthiest 20% of American households.  (For a more common argument about the most elite segments of society, see Chris Hayes’ Twilight of the Elites.)  We encourage you to read along with us as we think critically about Reeves’ assessment of class divisions in the United States and what it implies (or gets wrong) about American politics.

Our discussion leader will post some reflections and questions on the book during the week of July 31^st.