"The untold story of what once made America's economy great--and why it now keeps falling into crisis." -- inside front book jacket flap.

Winston-Salem, 1943: "I'm with them" -- McMinnville, 1978: the clear-cut American dream -- Ohio, 2006: this is not your life -- Southern California, 2013: the jobs are not coming back -- Winston-Salem, 2013: working harder, falling behind -- Winston-Salem to Queens, 1960: torching the blockades -- Aggregate consequences: a story in numbers -- Chicago, 2011: forward progress, lost -- Washington, D.C., 2016: a lie is sold -- Manhattan, 2016: the whole chessboard -- Building the riches of this land: how to get the middle class back on track -- Winston-Salem, 2019: "how did we steal something you threw away?" -- SoHo, 2019: uncommon capability -- Turners Falls, 2019: silent factories, empty orchards -- Washington, D.C., 2007-2019: no quick fixes, ever -- Green family home, 2019: eventually, you get more time -- Epilogue.