Includes bibliographical references (pages 351-354) and index.

Introduction. Haves and Have-nots. Nickel-and-dimed: on (not) getting by in America ; How you can save Wall Street ; S&M as public policy ; Going to extremes: CEOs vs. slaves ; Are illegal immigrants the problem? ; What's so great about gated communities? ; Is it now a crime to be poor? ; A homespun safety net ; Dead, white, and blue: the great die-off of America's blue-collar white people. Health. Welcome to Cancerland ; Naked truth about fitness ; Got Grease? ; Our broken mental health system ; Liposuction: the key to energy independence ; Selfish side of gratitude. Men. How "natural" is rape? ; Warrior culture ; At last, a new man ; Patriarchy deflated. Women. Are women getting sadder? Or are we all just getting a lot more gullible? ; Our neighborhood porn committee ; Strategies of corporate women ; What Abu Ghraib taught me ; Making sense of la différence ; Outclassed: sexual harassment (with Alissa Quart). God, Science, and Joy. Mind your own business ; Animal cure ; Missionary position ; New creationism: biology under attack (with Janet McIntosh) ; Up close at Trinidad's carnival. Bourgeois blunders. Family values ; Cult of busyness ; Death of a Yuppie dream (with John Ehrenreich) ; Unbearable being of whiteness ; Is the middle class doomed? ; Welcome to Fleece U. ; Prewatched TV ; Recession's racial divide (with Dedrick Muhammad) ; Divisions of labor ; Throw them out with the trash: Why homelessness is becoming an Occupy Wall Street issue.