Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- If you think the timing is rotten for a book called ``The Middle-Class Millionaire,'' you may lack the drive to become one.

We're talking about Americans who worked hard and overcame adversity ranging from dot-com flameouts to political persecution to amass a net worth of $1 million to $10 million, as Russ Alan Prince and Lewis Schiff show. A burst housing bubble is unlikely to keep this lot down.

Take Greg Hund, a former Wall Street account executive who worked from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., six or seven days a week to turn a Mail Boxes Etc. store on Manhattan's Upper West Side into a top revenue-producing franchise site for the chain.

Or Ping Fu, who was wrenched from her family during China's Cultural Revolution. She persevered and eventually co-founded software maker Geomagic Inc.

``The working rich are the hardworking rich,'' the authors say in this valuable if formulaic study.

The title is no oxymoron. Recent studies including Robert Frank's ``Richistan'' document how the newly rich often come from the middle class and retain its ethos. What sets ``The Middle- Class Millionaire'' apart is its focus on the lower reaches of Richistan.

Unlike the superrich, who are insulated from the hoi polloi, the working rich network like crazy and interact with a broad range of people. They exert more influence on society's ``aspirations, attitudes and spending habits,'' affecting the technology in our cars and the size of our suburban houses.

`Plywood Palaces'

The book flows from two surveys. One looked at 3,128 middle- class households whose income ranged between $50,000 and $80,000. The other involved 586 Middle-Class Millionaire households -- those whose net worth fell between $1 million and $10 million (including equity in their primary residence) and whose wealth was self-made.

You can argue with both definitions, especially the inclusion of a primary residence at a time when many people's mortgages exceed the deflated values of their homes. That doesn't undercut the book, which helps explain some of the biggest trends in the U.S. in recent years.

Want to understand why people are tearing down $400,000 houses in older suburbs and replacing them with ``plywood palaces'' worth $1 million? Middle-Class Millionaires want to raise their kids in convenient, family-oriented towns with good public schools.

Wonder why the competition to get Junior into a top university has escalated like an arms race, with parents sending teens to college-application ``boot camps''? Wealthy parents got ahead by networking and want their kids to benefit from Ivy League connections.

Ben Franklin

The narrative follows a familiar format, toggling from survey findings to portraits and broad national trends. Woven in are biographical notes on Benjamin Franklin, cast here as the archetypal Middle-Class Millionaire. This gets corny in places, as does the authors' use of catchphrases like Millionaire Intelligence and the Influence of Affluence.

Millionaire Intelligence refers to four traits that the newly rich share: They work hard, network, persevere in the face of failure and ardently pursue their financial self-interest.

That last characteristic has a ``somewhat dark side,'' the authors say. Roughly half of the Middle-Class Millionaires surveyed attributed their financial success to ``believing you have to be Machiavellian to succeed'' and ``taking advantage of weaknesses in others.'' Swell.

Chinese Deportee

Yet Middle-Class Millionaires also include people like Ping Fu, who in her 20s conducted a study on Chinese infanticide that sparked a human-rights uproar, prompting the government to imprison her, then deport her to the U.S. with just $80, the authors say.

She pursued a career in computer science and wound up mentoring a University of Illinois student named Marc Andreessen, whose Netscape Communications Inc. made him a bundle.

Fu resolved to follow his example, the authors say, and eventually set up Geomagic, which deploys laser scanners to model 3-D objects. The software is used for things as different as reconstructing parts for old Harley-Davidsons and analyzing wear and tear on the Space Shuttle's protective tiles.

The rich can come in handy.

``The Middle-Class Millionaire: The Rise of the New Rich and How They Are Changing America'' is from Currency/Doubleday (228 pages, $23.95).

(James Pressley writes for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this review: James Pressley in Brussels at jpressley@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 26, 2008 01:22 EST