Some interesting points in this book review:

Samuel places special emphasis on the ideological construction of the US as a “middle-class nation, the first of its kind in history.” In the first post-war years, he tells us, despite rising inflation that put a tight squeeze on middle-class income, the vast majority of Americans insisted upon defining themselves as members of the middle class, while simultaneously refusing to acknowledge class difference as a determinant of American social experience. According to Samuel, this phenomenon was the result of “two of the nation’s core myths: that [America is] a class-free society and, paradoxically, that individuals could rise in class through ‘upward mobility’.” Belief in American classlessness was ideologically manipulated to argue in favor of “the American Way of Life,” which was pitted against the oppressive classlessness of Soviet Communism. Simultaneously, the widespread notion that the vast majority of Americans were members of one massive class, obscured the existence of social disparities and class divisions.