Mexico's modern middle class emerged in the decades after World War II, a period of spectacular economic growth and social change. This book explores the changing fortunes and political transformation of the middle class, especially during the 1990s and first decade of the twenty-first century. Blending the personal narratives of middle-class Mexicans with analyses of national surveys of households and voters, Dennis Gilbert traces the development of the middle class starting in the 1940s.

Gilbert examines middle-class reactions to the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre, the 1982 debt crisis, the government's feeble response to the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, and its brazen manipulation of the vote count in the 1988 presidential election. Drawing on detailed interviews with Mexican families, he describes the effects of the 1994-95 peso crisis on middle-class households and their economic and political responses to it. His analysis of exit poll data from the 2000 elections shows that the lopsided middle-class vote in favour of opposition candidate Vicente Fox played a critical role in the election that drove the PRI from power after seven decades.