For the past two decades American scholars have been engaged in an intense examination of social mobility in American life. At the profoundest level, these studies examine the general notion that American society has been historically an open system which offered great opportunity for advancement to its poor and newcomers.

For the past two decades American scholars have been engaged in an intense examination of social mobility in American life. At the profoundest level, these studies examine the general notion that American society has been historically an open system which offered great opportunity for advancement to its poor and newcomers.