A study of the daily lives of working and middle class American families from the end of World War I through to the 1980s. Brown argues that there has been a revolution of rising expectations, and that changed consumption patterns have had an impact on the surrounding economy.

Clair Brown's original research draws on a number of previously virtually untapped sources of data, including reports compiled over decades by the Bureau of Labour Statistics, to present a vivid and extremely detailed picture of the daily lives of working and middle class American families from the end of World War I to the nineteen eighties.Brown's argument is that there is in effect a revolution of rising expectations: as families experience an improvement in their material well-being she clearly documents how they begin to aspire to the consumption preferences of the next higher class. These changes in consumption patterns have wide ranging impacts on the surrounding economy, including women's participation in the labour force and the growth of service industries.The major findings of the book is that American living standards have not been falling and are higher, even for those in poverty, than is generally acknowledged. this book will add to the discussion about how much the US can expect living standards to increase for the next generation in a globalized economy.

1. Economic Growth, Living Standards and Social Welfare.
2. Modelling and Measuring the Standard of Living.
3. Consuming the Products of Mechanization, 1918.
4. Living in the Midst of Depression, 1935.
5. Entering the Age of Affluence, 1950.
6. Reaching Economic Supremacy, 1973.
7. Living with Technological Change and Economic Stagnation, 1988.
8. Conclusion.
Appendix.
Index.