Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass
Encyclopedia
Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass is a collection of essays
written by British
writer
, doctor
, and psychiatrist
Theodore Dalrymple and published in book form by Ivan R. Dee in 2001. In 1994, the Manhattan Institute started publishing the contents of these essays in the City Journal magazine. They are about personal responsibility
, the mentality of society as a whole, and the troubles of the lower class, which Dalrymple commonly calls the "underclass". Dalrymple had problems in finding a British publisher to help him turn his individual essays into a collection, so he eventually turned to American companies for publication.
The main themes expressed in the collection include how an individual's worldview (Weltanschauung) affects their actions and the attitudes of those around them, the philosophy of social determinism
, and why a lack of personal responsibility for one's actions results from an individual's beliefs in determinism
. The writing style that Dalrymple explains these in was praised by reviewers for its clear, witty prose and for going immediately to the truth and heart of any matter that is being discussed.
Most reviews of the collection were positive, applauding how Dalrymple had utilized his experiences to create a work that gives a transparent look at poverty in England. The main detraction that reviewers had for the collection was that Dalrymple often became too opinionated in his writing while he was trying to get across the results of his studies.
and Birmingham Prison, both located in the Winson Green
area of Birmingham
, England. During this time, he wrote essays on topics related to his work, such as his discussions with patient
s and inmates
. Individual essays began being published periodically in the American quarterly magazine City Journal in 1994. The collection does not contain all of the essays he wrote about his experiences, but only the ones he considered the best, whether for their humour or their truth.
The experiences and situations described are largely anecdotal
, but Dalrymple explains that he interviewed over 10,000 people who attempted suicide
and had them tell stories about "the lives of four or five other people", resulting in a sample base of around 50,000 individuals. Since he is writing about the English
underclass, Dalrymple acknowledges that the majority of the people interviewed, remembered, and discussed about are white
. According to social critic Thomas Sowell
, this allows a look at the underclass "without fear of being called 'racist'."
In his attempts to have his collection published in a single work, Dalrymple was forced to submit his work to "an American house of conservative leaning" because he had little luck with British publishers. The publisher who eventually helped Dalrymple release the book was the Ivan R. Dee imprint of Rowman & Littlefield
publishing house. They published the collection as a hardcover in 2001.
, an index
, and two sections called "Grim Reality" and "Grimmer Theory". The sections are individually broken up into chapters, with sixteen in "Grim Reality" and six in "Grimmer Theory". Each chapter is an individual essay, which were published in separate issues of City Journal around seven years prior. The chapters are organized thematically
, not necessarily in chronological order
. The essays focus largely on the underclass
and the premise that in the latter half of the 20th century, poverty
, and hunger are no longer descriptive of the poor. Instead, lack of money has been replaced with "emptiness, agonies, violence, and moral squalor".
The main argument represented in the collection is that, rather than economics
and wealth
, modern-style poverty is described by a "wildly dysfunctional set of values". A number of chapters discuss the "ferocious young egoist" that is meant to represent male youths who are violent and obsessive toward their significant other
s. Dalrymple also writes about his views on the "destruction of...family ties", arguing that without family ties it is nearly impossible to rise out of the lower class. These issues, among others, are described as resulting from the "intellectual foundation...[which] makes a permanent underclass possible". This is meant to be directed against intellectuals and liberals that form the many ideas absorbed into the mentality of the underclass.
In the larger first section titled "Grim Reality", Dalrymple "uses specific stories from his practice and from some journalistic forays to show how the 'fundamental premise of popular culture' leads to actions that wreck people's lives." This section covers things like modern Bohemianism
, drug addictions
and overdoses
, lack of education, familial obligations, physical abuse
, and the concept of personal responsibility for choices made. Then, in the section "Grimmer Theory", he "shows that the twentieth century's intellectuals have provided members of the underclass with a battery of rationalizations by which they can shift the blame for their misery away from their actions and attitudes and can unleash their hatred of everyone who challenges their outlook.". Focusing on ideas more than events, this section considers the concepts of relativism
, determinism
, and egalitarianism
, and how each idea, in their creation by the bourgeoisie
intellectual
s, adversely affects the lower class.
by "those who refuse to accept responsibility for their acts". The type of language that the underclass uses, according to Dalrymple, professes their own ideas and ideology about the world.
Another major related theme that expands upon this trend is the philosophy of social determinism
held by those Dalrymple interviewed, and how the welfare state
and the socialist tenets within it help feed this mindset. However, Dalrymple never directly accuses socialism and the welfare state in his essays, instead focusing on the beliefs and reasons for why the patients and inmates take the destructive actions that they did. This is expressed with determinism in that they believe that their actions must be based on their childhoods or the failure of society in the past to help them. Those patients that Dalrymple speaks with "seem surprised and tell him that he's the first person they've ever talked to who suggests that they can change their lives for the better," further emphasizing the mindset in which their society has placed them.
An important subset to this deterministic theme, related to the original worldview idea as well, is the lack of personal responsibility that those in the underclass accept for their own actions. An example of this, which is repeated numerous times throughout the collection, is the statement, "The knife went in", in reference to the words of one of Dalrymple's patients who was in jail for murder. This sort of speech makes a person's actions seem like they are something separate from the person themselves and that they have no control over it.
A sub-theme that is mentioned is the conflict between two groups, the India
n Sikhs and the Pakistan
i Muslims, who "not only cannot get along with each other but also cannot adapt to secular Britain". This conflict is shown throughout the collection, usually when an Indian or Pakistani woman is acting as a patient for Dalrymple, who then extracts the story for why the person is there. However, there are only a few stories told from the perspective of Indian Sikhs and Pakistani Muslims since the majority of the patients and prisoners that Dalrymple interviews are white.
magazine described the style of the collection as "funny yet depressing, easy to read yet extremely profound." Publishers Weekly
considered the writing to be "graceful and often witty", although the "main points get hammered home too quickly and too often". Doctor D. of the National Review
considered the style to be "extraordinary", with "clear and penetrating prose" that was "always fearless for the truth". James R. Otteson
, in his novel Actual Ethics, spoke of how Dalrymple "does not employ the facts and figures", but "relies instead on his anecdotal experience". This, however, allows the "patterns [to] crystallize with pellucid clarity [very clear, transparently clear]".
called the collection "the best exploration of the problems of poverty ever written." America
magazine writer, Peter Heinegg, considered the essays to be a "barrage of breathtakingly horrible true-life...stories", but he said that Dalrymple puts too much of his personal "snorting indignation" into the text without letting the reader draw their own conclusions. He ended by saying, "Dalrymple’s case sounds like a paranoid tirade or perverse tribute, but it is at least partially redeemed by the barrage of breathtakingly horrible true-life (one assumes) stories that this very angry doctor tells...to bolster it." John Clark of Liberty
magazine called it "so compelling...that I read it cover to cover in a day’s time—and later reread it twice."
Thomas Sowell
, an award-winning American economist
and social critic
, described it as "brilliant and insightful" in Capitalism magazine and "an insightful and devastating eyewitness account of the white underclass in Britain" in the Jewish World Review
. Overall, Sowell said that the collection was able to explain that "One of the most telling examples of the social destructiveness of the left's welfare-state vision can be found among the white slum dwellers in Britain." Atlanta Journal-Constitution
writer, Theresa K. Weaver, called the collection "saddening, infuriating, and ultimately not terribly empowering", stating that she wishes Dalrymple "might at least offer a few ideas on turning everything around." Arthur Foulkes of the Carolina Journal
described it as a "fine book" that "offers much to friends of liberty everywhere." Roger Donway of The Atlas Society
considered it to be "one of the most instructive books that I have read in many years". Stephen Goode, writing for Insight on the News, said that the collection argued its "position brilliantly and with impressive passion". The National Observer
wrote that it "has much value", if it is taken as an "antidote to fashionable loose thinking".
Anthology
An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
written by British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, doctor
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
, and psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
Theodore Dalrymple and published in book form by Ivan R. Dee in 2001. In 1994, the Manhattan Institute started publishing the contents of these essays in the City Journal magazine. They are about personal responsibility
Responsibility
Responsibility may refer to:* Collective responsibility** Cabinet collective responsibility, a constitutional Convention in Governments using the Westminster System* Corporate responsibility** Corporate social responsibility...
, the mentality of society as a whole, and the troubles of the lower class, which Dalrymple commonly calls the "underclass". Dalrymple had problems in finding a British publisher to help him turn his individual essays into a collection, so he eventually turned to American companies for publication.
The main themes expressed in the collection include how an individual's worldview (Weltanschauung) affects their actions and the attitudes of those around them, the philosophy of social determinism
Social determinism
Social determinism is the hypothesis that social interactions and constructs alone determine individual behavior ....
, and why a lack of personal responsibility for one's actions results from an individual's beliefs in determinism
Determinism
Determinism is the general philosophical thesis that states that for everything that happens there are conditions such that, given them, nothing else could happen. There are many versions of this thesis. Each of them rests upon various alleged connections, and interdependencies of things and...
. The writing style that Dalrymple explains these in was praised by reviewers for its clear, witty prose and for going immediately to the truth and heart of any matter that is being discussed.
Most reviews of the collection were positive, applauding how Dalrymple had utilized his experiences to create a work that gives a transparent look at poverty in England. The main detraction that reviewers had for the collection was that Dalrymple often became too opinionated in his writing while he was trying to get across the results of his studies.
Background
Between 1990 and 2000, "Theodore Dalrymple", whose real name is Anthony Daniels, worked as a physician at City HospitalCity Hospital, Birmingham
City Hospital is a major hospital in the city of Birmingham, England. It is located in the Winson Green area of the west of the city....
and Birmingham Prison, both located in the Winson Green
Winson Green
Winson Green is a loosely-defined inner-city area in the west of the city of Birmingham, England. It is part of the ward of Soho.It is the location of HM Prison Birmingham and City Hospital .The area has a very multi-racial population, with large Afro-Caribbean and Asian communities.R&B singer...
area of Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, England. During this time, he wrote essays on topics related to his work, such as his discussions with patient
Patient
A patient is any recipient of healthcare services. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, advanced practice registered nurse, veterinarian, or other health care provider....
s and inmates
Convict
A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison", sometimes referred to in slang as simply a "con". Convicts are often called prisoners or inmates. Persons convicted and sentenced to non-custodial sentences often are not termed...
. Individual essays began being published periodically in the American quarterly magazine City Journal in 1994. The collection does not contain all of the essays he wrote about his experiences, but only the ones he considered the best, whether for their humour or their truth.
The experiences and situations described are largely anecdotal
Anecdote
An anecdote is a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person. It may be as brief as the setting and provocation of a bon mot. An anecdote is always presented as based on a real incident involving actual persons, whether famous or not, usually in an identifiable place...
, but Dalrymple explains that he interviewed over 10,000 people who attempted suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
and had them tell stories about "the lives of four or five other people", resulting in a sample base of around 50,000 individuals. Since he is writing about the English
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
underclass, Dalrymple acknowledges that the majority of the people interviewed, remembered, and discussed about are white
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
. According to social critic Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social theorist, political philosopher, and author. A National Humanities Medal winner, he advocates laissez-faire economics and writes from a libertarian perspective...
, this allows a look at the underclass "without fear of being called 'racist'."
In his attempts to have his collection published in a single work, Dalrymple was forced to submit his work to "an American house of conservative leaning" because he had little luck with British publishers. The publisher who eventually helped Dalrymple release the book was the Ivan R. Dee imprint of Rowman & Littlefield
Rowman & Littlefield
Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group is an independent publishing house founded in 1949. Under several imprints, the company offers scholarly books and journals for the academic market, as well as trade books. The company also owns a book distributor, National Book Network...
publishing house. They published the collection as a hardcover in 2001.
Content
The collection of essays has an introductionIntroduction (essay)
An introduction is a beginning section which states the purpose and goals of the following writing. The introduction is usually interesting and it intrigues the reader and causes him or her to want to read on. The sentence in which the introduction begins can be a question or just a statement...
, an index
Index (publishing)
An index is a list of words or phrases and associated pointers to where useful material relating to that heading can be found in a document...
, and two sections called "Grim Reality" and "Grimmer Theory". The sections are individually broken up into chapters, with sixteen in "Grim Reality" and six in "Grimmer Theory". Each chapter is an individual essay, which were published in separate issues of City Journal around seven years prior. The chapters are organized thematically
Theme (literature)
A theme is a broad, message, or moral of a story. The message may be about life, society, or human nature. Themes often explore timeless and universal ideas and are almost always implied rather than stated explicitly. Along with plot, character,...
, not necessarily in chronological order
Chronology
Chronology is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time, such as the use of a timeline or sequence of events. It is also "the determination of the actual temporal sequence of past events".Chronology is part of periodization...
. The essays focus largely on the underclass
Underclass
The term underclass refers to a segment of the population that occupies the lowest possible position in a class hierarchy, below the core body of the working class. The general idea that a class system includes a population under the working class has a long tradition in the social sciences...
and the premise that in the latter half of the 20th century, poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
, and hunger are no longer descriptive of the poor. Instead, lack of money has been replaced with "emptiness, agonies, violence, and moral squalor".
The main argument represented in the collection is that, rather than economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
and wealth
Wealth
Wealth is the abundance of valuable resources or material possessions. The word wealth is derived from the old English wela, which is from an Indo-European word stem...
, modern-style poverty is described by a "wildly dysfunctional set of values". A number of chapters discuss the "ferocious young egoist" that is meant to represent male youths who are violent and obsessive toward their significant other
Significant other
Significant other is colloquially used as a gender-blind term for a person's partner in an intimate relationship without disclosing or presuming anything about marital status, relationship status, or sexual orientation, as it is vague enough to avoid offense by using a term that an individual...
s. Dalrymple also writes about his views on the "destruction of...family ties", arguing that without family ties it is nearly impossible to rise out of the lower class. These issues, among others, are described as resulting from the "intellectual foundation...[which] makes a permanent underclass possible". This is meant to be directed against intellectuals and liberals that form the many ideas absorbed into the mentality of the underclass.
In the larger first section titled "Grim Reality", Dalrymple "uses specific stories from his practice and from some journalistic forays to show how the 'fundamental premise of popular culture' leads to actions that wreck people's lives." This section covers things like modern Bohemianism
Bohemianism
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...
, drug addictions
Substance dependence
The section about substance dependence in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders does not use the word addiction at all. It explains:...
and overdoses
Drug overdose
The term drug overdose describes the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities greater than are recommended or generally practiced...
, lack of education, familial obligations, physical abuse
Physical abuse
Physical abuse is abuse involving contact intended to cause feelings of intimidation, injury, or other physical suffering or bodily harm.-Forms of physical abuse:*Striking*Punching*Belting*Pushing, pulling*Slapping*Whipping*Striking with an object...
, and the concept of personal responsibility for choices made. Then, in the section "Grimmer Theory", he "shows that the twentieth century's intellectuals have provided members of the underclass with a battery of rationalizations by which they can shift the blame for their misery away from their actions and attitudes and can unleash their hatred of everyone who challenges their outlook.". Focusing on ideas more than events, this section considers the concepts of relativism
Relativism
Relativism is the concept that points of view have no absolute truth or validity, having only relative, subjective value according to differences in perception and consideration....
, determinism
Determinism
Determinism is the general philosophical thesis that states that for everything that happens there are conditions such that, given them, nothing else could happen. There are many versions of this thesis. Each of them rests upon various alleged connections, and interdependencies of things and...
, and egalitarianism
Egalitarianism
Egalitarianism is a trend of thought that favors equality of some sort among moral agents, whether persons or animals. Emphasis is placed upon the fact that equality contains the idea of equity of quality...
, and how each idea, in their creation by the bourgeoisie
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
intellectual
Intellectual
An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...
s, adversely affects the lower class.
Themes
One of the major subjects that the work revolves around is on the various worldviews (Weltanschauung) of individual people, societies, and the impositions of society on those within it. Dalrymple states further that "...everyone has a Weltanschauung, a worldview, whether he knows it or not...Their ideas make themselves manifest even in the language they use." The example stated is the use of passive speechPassive voice
Passive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. Passive is used in a clause whose subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb. That is, the subject undergoes an action or has its state changed. A sentence whose theme is marked as grammatical subject is...
by "those who refuse to accept responsibility for their acts". The type of language that the underclass uses, according to Dalrymple, professes their own ideas and ideology about the world.
Another major related theme that expands upon this trend is the philosophy of social determinism
Social determinism
Social determinism is the hypothesis that social interactions and constructs alone determine individual behavior ....
held by those Dalrymple interviewed, and how the welfare state
Welfare state
A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those...
and the socialist tenets within it help feed this mindset. However, Dalrymple never directly accuses socialism and the welfare state in his essays, instead focusing on the beliefs and reasons for why the patients and inmates take the destructive actions that they did. This is expressed with determinism in that they believe that their actions must be based on their childhoods or the failure of society in the past to help them. Those patients that Dalrymple speaks with "seem surprised and tell him that he's the first person they've ever talked to who suggests that they can change their lives for the better," further emphasizing the mindset in which their society has placed them.
An important subset to this deterministic theme, related to the original worldview idea as well, is the lack of personal responsibility that those in the underclass accept for their own actions. An example of this, which is repeated numerous times throughout the collection, is the statement, "The knife went in", in reference to the words of one of Dalrymple's patients who was in jail for murder. This sort of speech makes a person's actions seem like they are something separate from the person themselves and that they have no control over it.
A sub-theme that is mentioned is the conflict between two groups, the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n Sikhs and the Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i Muslims, who "not only cannot get along with each other but also cannot adapt to secular Britain". This conflict is shown throughout the collection, usually when an Indian or Pakistani woman is acting as a patient for Dalrymple, who then extracts the story for why the person is there. However, there are only a few stories told from the perspective of Indian Sikhs and Pakistani Muslims since the majority of the patients and prisoners that Dalrymple interviews are white.
Style
Meic Pearse of Third WayThird Way Magazine
Third Way Magazine is a UK current-affairs magazine written from a Christian perspective. It is distinctively biblical, fairly highbrow and culturally aware...
magazine described the style of the collection as "funny yet depressing, easy to read yet extremely profound." Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
considered the writing to be "graceful and often witty", although the "main points get hammered home too quickly and too often". Doctor D. of the National Review
National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
considered the style to be "extraordinary", with "clear and penetrating prose" that was "always fearless for the truth". James R. Otteson
James Otteson
James R. Otteson is an American philosopher. Formerly the chairman of the department of philosophy at the University of Alabama, he has also taught at Georgetown University...
, in his novel Actual Ethics, spoke of how Dalrymple "does not employ the facts and figures", but "relies instead on his anecdotal experience". This, however, allows the "patterns [to] crystallize with pellucid clarity [very clear, transparently clear]".
Critical reception
Life at the Bottom has received mostly positive reviews. Gregory Schneider of the Topeka Capital-JournalThe Topeka Capital-Journal
The Topeka Capital-Journal is a daily newspaper in Topeka, Kansas owned by Morris Communications. It has won one Pulitzer Prize.-History:...
called the collection "the best exploration of the problems of poverty ever written." America
America (magazine)
America is a national weekly magazine published by the American Jesuits that contains news and opinion about Catholicism and how it relates to American politics and cultural life....
magazine writer, Peter Heinegg, considered the essays to be a "barrage of breathtakingly horrible true-life...stories", but he said that Dalrymple puts too much of his personal "snorting indignation" into the text without letting the reader draw their own conclusions. He ended by saying, "Dalrymple’s case sounds like a paranoid tirade or perverse tribute, but it is at least partially redeemed by the barrage of breathtakingly horrible true-life (one assumes) stories that this very angry doctor tells...to bolster it." John Clark of Liberty
Liberty (1987)
Liberty is a leading libertarian journal founded in 1987 by R. W. Bradford in Port Townsend, Washington, and currently edited from San Diego, California, by Stephen Cox...
magazine called it "so compelling...that I read it cover to cover in a day’s time—and later reread it twice."
Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social theorist, political philosopher, and author. A National Humanities Medal winner, he advocates laissez-faire economics and writes from a libertarian perspective...
, an award-winning American economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
and social critic
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
, described it as "brilliant and insightful" in Capitalism magazine and "an insightful and devastating eyewitness account of the white underclass in Britain" in the Jewish World Review
Jewish World Review
Jewish World Review is a free, online magazine updated Monday through Friday , which seeks to appeal to "people of faith and those interested in learning more about contemporary Judaism from Jews who take their religion seriously."It carries informational articles related to Judaism, dozens of...
. Overall, Sowell said that the collection was able to explain that "One of the most telling examples of the social destructiveness of the left's welfare-state vision can be found among the white slum dwellers in Britain." Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the only major daily newspaper in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, and its suburbs. The AJC, as it is called, is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the result of the merger between The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta...
writer, Theresa K. Weaver, called the collection "saddening, infuriating, and ultimately not terribly empowering", stating that she wishes Dalrymple "might at least offer a few ideas on turning everything around." Arthur Foulkes of the Carolina Journal
John Locke Foundation
The John Locke Foundation is a free market think tank in North Carolina started in 1990. Its mission statement says the "John Locke Foundation employs research, journalism, and outreach programs to transform government through competition, innovation, personal freedom, and personal responsibility...
described it as a "fine book" that "offers much to friends of liberty everywhere." Roger Donway of The Atlas Society
The Atlas Society
The Atlas Society — of which The Objectivist Center is a part — is a research and advocacy organization promoting "a culture that affirms the core Objectivist values of reason, individualism, freedom, and achievement." It is part of the Objectivist movement that split off from the Ayn Rand...
considered it to be "one of the most instructive books that I have read in many years". Stephen Goode, writing for Insight on the News, said that the collection argued its "position brilliantly and with impressive passion". The National Observer
National Observer (Australia)
The National Observer is a quarterly current-affairs and politics magazine in Australia...
wrote that it "has much value", if it is taken as an "antidote to fashionable loose thinking".
See also
- Spoilt Rotten: The Toxic Cult of SentimentalitySpoilt Rotten: The Toxic Cult of SentimentalitySpoilt Rotten: The Toxic Cult of Sentimentality is a book by the British writer and retired doctor and psychiatrist Theodore Dalrymple, originally published in 2010. Polemical in nature, the book contends that sentimentality has become culturally entrenched in British society, with harmful...
- Our Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the MassesOur Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the MassesOur Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses is a 2005 non-fiction book by British physician and writer Theodore Dalrymple. It is composed of twenty-six separate pieces that cover a wide range of topics from drug legalization to the influence of Shakespeare...
- Down and Out in Paris and LondonDown and Out in Paris and LondonDown and Out in Paris and London is the first full-length work by the English author George Orwell , published in 1933. It is a memoir in two parts on the theme of poverty in the two cities. The first part is a picaresque account of living on the breadline in Paris and the experience of casual...
- Moral relativismMoral relativismMoral relativism may be any of several descriptive, meta-ethical, or normative positions. Each of them is concerned with the differences in moral judgments across different people and cultures:...
- High cultureHigh cultureHigh culture is a term, now used in a number of different ways in academic discourse, whose most common meaning is the set of cultural products, mainly in the arts, held in the highest esteem by a culture...
- Political correctnessPolitical correctnessPolitical correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
External links
- Theodore Dalrymple's profile on the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research website
- Life at the Bottom on the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research website
- Life at the Bottom on the Ivan R. Dee, Publisher website.