Passing the torch: an overview -- Thirty years later: educational attainments -- How families fared: the college payoff -- Breaking the cycle of disadvantage: maternal education and children's success -- How college changes a mother's parenting and affects her children's educational outcomes --...

Introduction -- The Power of the Illusion, the Way We Never Were -- The Dream Interrupted, Insecurity Among the Middle-Aged -- Privileged Expectations and Insecure Realities -- The Myth of Equal Opportunity -- Negotiating Uncertainty -- Economic Vulnerability as the New Normal.

Over the last forty years, rising national income has helped reduce poverty rates, but this has been accompanied by an increase in economic inequality. While these trends are largely attributed to technological change and demographic shifts, such as changing birth rates, labor force patterns,...