Man and his work: conflict and change

The thesis of this book is that the expansion of education in the United States has not increased equality of opportunity and that preoccupation with equality of opportunity is the source of many current social problems and conflicts in American society. The author does not deny that there has been great expansion of educational opportunity and that this has resulted in raising the general level of education of the adult population but thinks that this has resulted in status inflation (e.g., since bachelor's degrees are so common now their holders have no more status than did high school graduates a generation before). He further believes that status inflation has led inevitably to weariness and frustration on the part of its victims and has been a major factor in the urban riots and campus unrest of the past decade