review of  The Accidental Equalizer: How Luck Determines Pay After College. by Jessi Streib. Journal of Working-Class Studies. https://journals.uwyo.edu/index.php/workingclassstudies/article/view/8907/6735 

 This is Jessi Streib’s third book, all published in the last eight years. As with The Power of the Pastand Privilege Lost, it is a snappily written,crisply presented monograph based on interviews with a select group of persons experiencing some interesting aspect of class dynamics in contemporary America. In this case, the group of persons are college seniors looking for jobs and mostly finding them. Streib employs this group to tell a story of the role of luck rather than class in finding well-paying work after college. The Accidental Equalizer thus operates as a counter-narrative to that which is mostly related by researchers publishing in this journal. Instead of a story of class mobility blocked by preexisting class advantages, Streib describes a field that is so random and undetermined that class advantages (e.g., what and who one knows, how much money and education parents have) are largely powerless to make a difference in outcomes. In her account, working-class students are equally as likely to find a well-paying job after college as their middle-class peers. To say this finding flies in the face of a lot of pre-existing research would be an understatement. Is Streib convincing? To some extent, yes. A finding that, in certain circumstances, class background matters less than luck is actually quite a consequential and even, perhaps, revolutionary finding. But those “in certain circumstances” are important to keep in mind. Let’s begin with where Streib shines. She is a facile storyteller and is able to convey difficult information succinctly. There is a lot of “economics” discourse throughout the book,but a casual reader would hardly notice as it is wrapped up well in colorful description and compelling examples. As always, her title attracts and surprises,and throughout she writes passages that could easily stand as “soundbites” on a podcast or in the pages of the New YorkTimes. Actually, I expect to find it there soon!. Unlike many academics who get tripped up on their own discourse, Streib always seems to know how to reach her audience. This is a fun book to read. It is compelling and persuasive, and full of stories of actual people struggling to make sense of their circumstances.Throughout she uses a simple analogy of Let’s Make a Deal as a running theme in support of her theory. You may recall the famous game show in which contestants were shown three doors and asked to randomly select one in the hope of acquiring a valuable prize. Actually, the game was a bit more complicated than this,but let’s keep it simple, as Streib does. Class doesn’t help any contestant in this game. It is wholly random, and the contestants have no idea where the prize is located or even what the prize is. As Streib explains, they can’t call their parents for help as their parents don’t have any useful information either...