The Underclass

The acclaimed author and New Yorker columnist delves into the core of American poverty in the early 1980s: “Invaluable.” —The Washington Post

First appearing as a three-part series in the New Yorker, Ken Auletta’s The Underclass provides an enlightening look at the lives of addicts, dropouts, ex-convicts, welfare recipients, and individuals experiencing homelessness.

Auletta’s investigation began with a seemingly simple goal: to find out who exactly makes up the poorest of the poor, and to trace the many paths that took them there. As the author follows 250 hardened members of this “underclass,” he focuses on efforts to help them reconstruct their lives and find a functional place in mainstream society. Through the lives of the men and women he encounters, Auletta discovers the complex truths that have made hard-core poverty in America such an intractable problem.

In a nation where poverty and welfare rolls are declining but the underclass persists, the United States is as conflicted as ever about its responsibilities toward all its people. With his empathy, insight, and expert reportage, Auletta’s The Underclass remains as pertinent as ever.

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The Underclass

The acclaimed author and New Yorker columnist delves into the core of American poverty in the early 1980s: “Invaluable.” —The Washington Post

First appearing as a three-part series in the New Yorker, Ken Auletta’s The Underclass provides an enlightening look at the lives of addicts, dropouts, ex-convicts, welfare recipients, and individuals experiencing homelessness.

Auletta’s investigation began with a seemingly simple goal: to find out who exactly makes up the poorest of the poor, and to trace the many paths that took them there. As the author follows 250 hardened members of this “underclass,” he focuses on efforts to help them reconstruct their lives and find a functional place in mainstream society. Through the lives of the men and women he encounters, Auletta discovers the complex truths that have made hard-core poverty in America such an intractable problem.

In a nation where poverty and welfare rolls are declining but the underclass persists, the United States is as conflicted as ever about its responsibilities toward all its people. With his empathy, insight, and expert reportage, Auletta’s The Underclass remains as pertinent as ever.

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The Underclass

The Underclass

by Ken Auletta
The Underclass

The Underclass

by Ken Auletta

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Overview

The acclaimed author and New Yorker columnist delves into the core of American poverty in the early 1980s: “Invaluable.” —The Washington Post

First appearing as a three-part series in the New Yorker, Ken Auletta’s The Underclass provides an enlightening look at the lives of addicts, dropouts, ex-convicts, welfare recipients, and individuals experiencing homelessness.

Auletta’s investigation began with a seemingly simple goal: to find out who exactly makes up the poorest of the poor, and to trace the many paths that took them there. As the author follows 250 hardened members of this “underclass,” he focuses on efforts to help them reconstruct their lives and find a functional place in mainstream society. Through the lives of the men and women he encounters, Auletta discovers the complex truths that have made hard-core poverty in America such an intractable problem.

In a nation where poverty and welfare rolls are declining but the underclass persists, the United States is as conflicted as ever about its responsibilities toward all its people. With his empathy, insight, and expert reportage, Auletta’s The Underclass remains as pertinent as ever.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781504093576
Publisher: Open Road Media
Publication date: 12/05/2023
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 402
Sales rank: 901,645
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

Ken Auletta (b.1942) has written for the New Yorker since 1977, where he has been the “Annals of Communications” columnist since 1992. He is the author of eleven books, five of which are national bestsellers. Early in his career, Auletta was the chief political correspondent for the New York Post, a columnist for the Village Voice and the New York Daily News, and a writer for New York magazine. For the New Yorker, he has probed corporate culture and the rise of the Internet, and profiled business leaders such as Bill Gates, Barry Diller, and Rupert Murdoch. Auletta won a National Magazine Award in 2001 for his New Yorker feature on Ted Turner, and he has been a judge for both the Pulitzer Prize and the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists. His books include The Underclass; Googled: The End of the World As We Know It; Greed and Glory on Wall Street: The Fall of the House of LehmanThe Highwaymen: Warriors of the Information Superhighway; and World War 3.0: Microsoft and Its Enemies. Auletta lives in Manhattan.

Table of Contents

Introduction11
1The BT-27 Class27
2Profile of the Underclass: Its Size, Causes and Effects37
3The Class Versus the Experts84
4Howard Smith: Life-Skills Teacher99
5Single Mothers: "The Feminization of Poverty"104
6BT-27 on Broken Families, Unemployment, Racism, Crime118
7Crime: The Law-Enforcement View136
8The "Welfare Mentality"155
9BT-27: Goals and Obstacles171
10BT-27 After Ten Weeks183
11Who Is to Blame, the System or the Individual?195
12Appalachia: The White Underclass209
13The Rural Black Underclass229
14Differences: The White, Black and Hispanic Underclass253
15BT-27 Graduates259
16What Became of the Members of BT-27270
17MDRC and Supported Work: Results of a National Experiment282
18A Guaranteed Job for Youths: The National Results300
19Lingering Questions311
20Has There Been Progress in the "War on Poverty"?316
21What To Do? The Wholesale Option332
22The Laissez-Faire Option351
23The Retail Option361
Epilogue383
Acknowledgments387
Bibliography389
Index407
About the Author416
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