Description
Book SynopsisHere 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.
Trade ReviewTruthful—therefore morally courageous and intellectually rigorous. -- Norman Podhoretz
Dalrymple’s vivid writing and often heartbreaking stories rise above his deeply felt social analysis. * Publishers Weekly *
Brilliant social analysis...a master chronicle of life at the bottom. -- Hilton Kramer
Lucid, unsentimental, and profoundly honest...Dalrymple is one of the great essayists of our age. -- Denis Dutton, Editor,
Arts & Letters Daily
This devastating account and analysis of underclass life—and the elite ideas which support it—is a classic for our times. -- Thomas Sowell, Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University
It is a truism that ideas have consequences, but a truism is rarely illustrated as implacably as in this book. -- George F. Will, syndicated columnist for The Washington Post
Theodore Dalrymple is the best doctor-writer since William Carlos Williams. -- Peggy Noonan
Mr. Daniels’s best essays cast a spell almost from the opening line. * New York Sun *
A landmark experience is reading Life at the Bottom… * Detroit Free Press *
Once in a long while a writer comes along with a vision so powerful that it shakes you. Theodore Dalrymple is that kind of writer. -- Bruce Ramsey * Liberty Press *
