Purchase
The Working Poor: Invisible in America
David K. Shipler
" An essential book. . . . It should be required reading not just for every member of Congress, but for every eligible voter." --The Washington Post
Vintage
January 2005
352 pages ISBN: 0375708219 Trade Size (reprint)
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction
“Nobody who works hard should be poor in America,” writes
Pulitzer Prize winner David Shipler. Clear-headed,
rigorous, and compassionate, he journeys deeply into the
lives of individual store clerks and factory workers, farm
laborers and sweat-shop seamstresses, illegal immigrants in
menial jobs and Americans saddled with immense student
loans and paltry wages. They are known as the working poor. They perform labor essential to America’s comfort. They are
white and black, Latino and Asian--men and women in small
towns and city slums trapped near the poverty line, where
the margins are so tight that even minor setbacks can cause
devastating chain reactions. Shipler shows how liberals and
conservatives are both partly right–that practically every
life story contains failure by both the society and the
individual. Braced by hard fact and personal testimony, he
unravels the forces that confine people in the quagmire of
low wages. And unlike most works on poverty, this book also
offers compelling portraits of employers struggling against
razor-thin profits and competition from abroad. With
pointed recommendations for change that challenge
Republicans and Democrats alike, The Working Poor stands to
make a difference.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
|