Abstract
The United States of America has often been viewed as a middle-class nation. Historically, the middle class is considered the class which built the nation against a feudal-like system; ideologically, it celebrates the common man and temperance; it socially represents the equality of opportunity; and it politically is a strong element of the democratic process. Within the middle class, one can find the essence of the American values, and the spirit of a whole nation. The myth of the middle class nevertheless requires clarification: who really are those people who became so emblematic? What place do they have in the socio-economic life of the country? In order to locate and define the middle class, one must go back in time, for no sociological work is static, but dynamic. In this document, I will endeavor to focus on the trajectory of the middle class by going back to its very origins and studying its evolution. For that reason, I will avoid lingering over its micro-sociological aspects like ways of life, behavior, self-consciousness, and articulate my research around the American middle class as a concept by analyzing its changing patterns and identities as a socio-economic group.
