Life at the Bottom
The Worldview That Makes the Underclass
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Here 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.
About this Author
Theodore Dalrymple is a physician and psychiatrist who practices in England. He writes a column for the London Spectator, contributes frequently to the Daily Telegraph, and is a contributing editor of the Manhattan Institute's City Journal. His other books include Our Culture, What's Left of It, Mass Listeria, and So Little Done. He lives in Birmingham, England.
Reviews
Truthful--therefore morally courageous and intellectually rigorous.
Dalrymple's vivid writing and often heartbreaking stories rise above his deeply felt social analysis.
Brilliant social analysis...a master chronicle of life at the bottom.
Lucid, unsentimental, and profoundly honest...Dalrymple is one of the great essayists of our age.
This devastating account and analysis of underclass life--and the elite ideas which support it--is a classic for our times.
It is a truism that ideas have consequences, but a truism is rarely illustrated as implacably as in this book.
Theodore Dalrymple is the best doctor-writer since William Carlos Williams.
Mr. Daniels's best essays cast a spell almost from the opening line.
A landmark experience is reading Life at the Bottom...
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.
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