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The Missing Class
Portraits of the Near Poor in America
Beacon Press
Too poor to enjoy the comforts of the middle-class and too wealthy to qualify for government assistance, the Missing Class is often trapped without a safety net. This revealing exposé gives voice to this growing segment of the population.
-Booklist
In early 2006, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa got national attention when he spoke about the millions of Americans who live on the “razor’s edge of subsistence.” They live above the poverty line, often having pulled themselves there on the strength of their determination and their belief in the American Dream. But they don’t have even the thin safety net that members of the working class and middle class can depend upon, and thus have little chance of availing themselves of the kind of opportunities that might assure them a permanent place in the mainstream.
These Americans are the members of the Missing Class, a class that Katherine Newman and Victor Tan Chu introduce us to in The Missing Class. By telling the stories of families who have worked hard and played by the rules, and yet are struggling to maintain what they have achieved, let alone reach for the next rung on the ladder, this is a book that makes an eloquent argument for thinking about income inequality in a much broader way.
Katherine S. Newman is Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University. She is the author of many books, among them No Shame in My Game and Rampage. Victor Tan Chen is a doctoral candidate in sociology and social policy at Harvard University.
Foreign editions of The Missing Class
To inquire about international rights please contact Beacon Press.
