In his forthcoming book The New Class Conflict, Joel Kotkin explores how the familiar social and political categories of the twentieth century—left and right, liberal and conservative—no longer correspond to the emerging divisions of the present day. Kotkin’s analysis insead focuses on the ascendency of two classes: the tech Oligarchy, based in Silicon Valley; and the Clerisy, which includes much of the nation’s policy, media, and academic elites. The New Class Conflict is written largely from the point of view of those who are, to date, the losers in this class conflict: the middle class. This group, which Kotkin calls the Yeomanry, has been the traditional bulwark of American society, politics, and economy. Yet under pressure from the ascendant Oligarchs and ever more powerful Clerisy, their prospects have diminished the American dream of class mobility that has animated its history and sustained its global appeal.

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