Armed with Ivy League diplomas and cultural capital but locked out of wealth and status, this disaffected class is fueling America’s new radicalism.
In America, we love a rags-to-riches tale. Think of Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish immigrant who rose from bobbin boy to steel magnate; Oprah Winfrey, who grew up poor in rural Mississippi; even Elon Musk, the awkward South African transplant who transformed himself into the richest man alive.
These stories are endlessly recycled because they affirm a central American creed: that each generation can surpass the one before.
Today, however, that creed is starting to creak. In 2025, the most combustible force in American society isn’t upward mobility, but its opposite.
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Rob Henderson is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. He has a PhD in psychology from the University of Cambridge and is the best-selling author of “Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class.”
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