The Second Generation

Hiram Ranger runs his flour mills with the skill and discipline of a working craftsman. When his son Arthur arrives in fashionable clothes and breaks the factory rules, their encounter exposes a gap between earned wealth and inherited comfort. Arthur's admission that he has failed his Harvard examinations adds a personal strain to the disagreement. David Graham Phillips sets this American social novel among prosperous families whose children must reckon with the expectations attached to their position.

When Madelene tends Arthur's injured finger in her office, she speaks warmly about her medical work. Her confidence gives their conversation a different measure of worth: commitment to a useful occupation. Through factory life, family exchanges and Arthur's uneasy sense of himself, the book explores class, pride and responsibility. Readers interested in the pressures of privilege can follow these ideas through practical encounters and sharply drawn dialogue.