"Her Life Story Is a Eulogy for an America Long Since Past"

"Like internships, adjunct positions are often necessary to advance professionally - but only the well-off can afford to work them without living in poverty or debt. The result is a professoriate of an increasingly uniform class background, much like the policy, finance and journalism circles McArdle describes. Mobility is but a memory. 'The life prospects of an American are more dependent on the income and education of his parents than in almost any other advanced country for which there is data,' writes economist Joseph E Stiglitz in an editorial aptly titled 'Equal Opportunity, Our National Myth'."

Sarah Kendzior at Al Jazeera looks to Drew Gilpin Faust's experiences to see changes in class mobility during the past forty years.