This book examines Americans and their beliefs about the class divide in the United States. It argues that Americans’ beliefs about class and the economic divide develop through a multi-step process. Economic affluence influences the development of world view, measured in terms of ideology, partisanship, and self-identified class consciousness. Class consciousness in turn affects how people look at political and economic issues. Although most Americans are not conscious of the growing class divide between haves and have-nots, the book argues that this trend has been changing in recent years. Declining economic prospects for many Americans began during the late 2000s and 2010s to produce growing awareness of inequality and the economic divide in the United States. Many Americans are increasingly willing to speak critically about growing societal inequality, and record inequality among the masses has led to a relative weakening of the hegemonic ideology which insists that “working hard” guarantees one will “get ahead,” and denies that the US is divided between haves and have-nots. This book is intended for scholars and students at every level who study inequality from a political, economic, or sociological position, along with general readers with a growing interest and awareness of the effects of inequality on our democracy.