Full name: Life at the Bottom: The Worldview that Makes the Underclass

Author: Theodore Dalrymple Year: 2001 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Non Fiction, Politics, Psychology, Economics, Essays Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9781566635059 1566635055

Here is a searing account-probably the best yet published-of life in the underclass and why it persists as it does. Theodore Dalrymple, a British psychiatrist who treats the poor in a slum hospital and a prison in England, has seemingly seen it all. Yet in listening to and observing his patients, he is continually astonished by the latest twist of depravity that exceeds even his own considerable experience. Dalrymple's key insight in Life at the Bottom is that long-term poverty is caused not by economics but by a dysfunctional set of values, one that is continually reinforced by an elite culture searching for victims. This culture persuades those at the bottom that they have no responsibility for their actions and are not the molders of their own lives. Drawn from the pages of the cutting-edge political and cultural quarterly City Journal, Dalrymple's book draws upon scores of eye-opening, true-life vignettes that are by turns hilariously funny, chillingly horrifying, and all too revealing-sometimes all at once. And Dalrymple writes in prose that transcends journalism and achieves the quality of literature. Similar books: Our Culture, What's Left of It by Theodore Dalrymple Bobos in Paradise by David Brooks In Praise of Prejudice by Theodore Dalrymple The New Vichy Syndrome by Theodore Dalrymple The Myth of the Rational Voter by Bryan Caplan The Rent Is Too Damn High by Matthew Yglesias Simpler by Cass R. Sunstein Fences and Windows by Naomi Klein The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump by Bandy X. Lee Enlightenment 2.0 by Joseph Heath The Great Unraveling by Paul Krugman The Strategy of Conflict by Thomas C. Schelling The Jobless Future by Stanley Aronowitz So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo The Locust Effect by Gary A. Haugen Tell Me How It Ends by Valeria Luiselli The Good Immigrant by Nikesh Shukla White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo Tightrope by Nicholas D. Kristof No, They Can't by John Stossel