Includes bibliographical references (pages 333-348) and index.

Preface -- Introduction: of ruling classes and underclasses : the laws of social mobility -- Social mobility by time and place -- Sweden : mobility achieved? -- The United States : land of opportunity -- Medieval England : mobility in the feudal age -- Modern England : the deep roots of the present -- A law of social mobility -- Nature versus nurture -- Testing the laws of mobility -- India : caste, endogamy, and mobility -- China and Taiwan : mobility after Mao -- Japan and Korea : social homogeneity and mobility -- Chile : mobility among the oligarchs -- The law of social mobility and family dynamics -- Protestants, Jews, gypsies, Muslims, and copts : exceptions to the law of mobility? -- Mobility anomalies -- The good society -- Is mobility too low? : mobility versus inequality -- Escaping downward social mobility -- Appendix 1: Measuring social mobility -- Appendix 2: Deriving social mobility rates from surname frequencies -- Appendix 3: Discovering the status of your surname lineage -- Data sources for figures and tables -- References -- Index.

How much of our fate is tied to the status of our parents and grandparents? How much does it influence our children? More than we wish to believe. While it has been argued that rigid class structures have eroded in favor of greater social equality, The Son Also Rises proves that movement on the social ladder has changed little over eight centuries. Using a novel technique―tracking family names over generations to measure social mobility across countries and periods―renowned economic historian Gregory Clark reveals that mobility rates are lower than conventionally estimated, do not vary across societies, and are resistant to social policies.

Clark examines and compares surnames in such diverse cases as modern Sweden and Qing Dynasty China. He demonstrates how fate is determined by ancestry and that almost all societies have similarly low social mobility rates. Challenging popular assumptions about mobility and revealing the deeply entrenched force of inherited advantage, The Son Also Rises is sure to prompt intense debate for years to come.