Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface -- 1. Background and history -- A widening gap -- Measuring income inequality -- Wealth inequality -- Long-term trends -- Rowboats, yachts, and rising tides -- Race, ethnicity, and economic inequality -- Income inequality and health -- Income inequality and education -- A shrinking middle class ? -- From rich to poor and poor to rich : mobility -- Rich and poor : the political dimension -- 2. Problems, controversies, and solutions -- The wage structure and human capital -- Labor skills, labor demand, and technological change -- International competition -- Immigration -- Unions and the wage distribution -- The Minimum Wage and inequality -- Winner take all? -- family structure and income distribution -- Political perspectives on income inequality -- Education as an income equalizer -- The effectiveness of early interventions -- U.S. schools and inequality -- Ways to improve low-SES student performance -- College : ticket to the middle class -- Working on the labor market -- The living wage as a boost to low wages -- Stronger unions as a means to lift low wages -- Earned Income Tax Credit -- Limits on CEO pay -- Immigrant labor supplies -- Taxes and transfer payments -- Wealth and estate taxes -- Asset-building policies -- Summary --

3. Worldwide perspective-- A world of contrasts -- National rates of income inequality -- Income inequality in Latin America and Africa -- Poverty in the rich countries -- National trends in income inequality -- Income by country : divergence or convergence? -- A new concept of global inequality -- Less inequality, less poverty? -- Economic mobility : the United States in global perspective -- Top U.S. incomes in worldwide perspective -- CEO pay and income inequality -- Wealth taxes : a (so far) non-American response to wealth inequality -- A caution on wealth taxes -- 4. Chronology -- 5. Biographical sketches -- Horatio Alger Jr. -- Anne L. Alstott -- Warren E. Buffett -- John Bates Clark -- Chuck Collins -- Marian Wright Edelman -- John Edwards -- Barbara Ehrenreich -- Victor R. Fuchs -- William H. Gates III -- Corrado Gini -- Hetty Green -- Delores Huerta -- Jonathan Kozol -- Simon Kuznets -- Bhashkar Mazumder -- Sara S. McLanahan -- Mollie Orshansky -- John D. Rockefeller -- Paul G. Schervish -- Thomas M. Shapiro -- Michael Sherraden -- Ronald J. Sider -- Timothy M. Smeeding -- Samuel Walton -- Richard Wilkinson -- Edward N. Wolff --

6. Data and documents -- Inequality and the American public : the Maxwell School Survey -- Perceptions of inequality trends -- Concerns about inequality -- California Kids Investment and Development Savings (KIDS) accounts -- Ben Bernanke on U.S. income inequality -- pay without performance : the great CEO guarantee -- Are CEOs overpaid? -- The Estate Tax 'recycles' opportunity -- Being profitable is giving back -- Andrew Carnegie on what to do with a fortune -- Giving back, big time : the Carnegie-Buffett connection -- Being poor -- 7. Directory of organizations -- 8. Selected print and nonprint resources -- Print resources -- Articles -- Books -- Nonprint resources -- Web sites -- Video -- Contact information for video distributors and vendors -- Glossary -- Index -- About the author.