| Summary/Abstract |
The middle class is always rising. Many of us who studied European history may remember that saying with a certain fondness. Whether the course was on medieval, early modern, or late modern European history, one inevitable topic was the rising middle classes. They were behind just about everything important in Europe's development—the growth of the city-states, the English civil war, the French Revolution—to name just a few. Now fast forward to the twenty-first century, and it is the global middle class we’re all talking about as “emerging,” or rising. Ironically, it is rising at a time when the middle classes in the United States and Europe seem to be declining! For once, it doesn’t seem like “plus ça change,” but something new that is afoot
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