The Dispossessed: America's Underclasses from the Civil War to the Present [Hardcover]

Jacqueline Jones (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1992

The specter of the Northern "underclass" haunts the American imagination. Many books focus on a piece of the problem: either the North or South, blacks or whites, industrial or agricultural workers. This sweeping chronicle of the roots of poverty reveals for the first time the full contours of this American tragedy. In a moving evocation of what it has meant to be down and out in America, prizewinning historian Jacqueline Jones explores the wrenching displacement of millions of rural Americans, both blacks and whites, beginning after the Civil War and following their great trek into the industrial centers and urban ghettos of the North. Through the stories of ordinary families, "The Dispossessed" systematically dismantles the myth of the "culture of poverty", challenging the central tenets of the underclass debate. Jones shows how families struggled mightily on cotton plantations, in coal mining camps, and in factory towns to piece together a livelihood and free themselves from dependency.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

A provocative sociohistorical account of America's underclasses. Jones (American Civilization/Brandeis; Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow, 1985) argues that the history of poverty in this country, intermingled as it is with a legacy of racism, has been and continues to be misunderstood. One current misperception, Jones says, is the almost exclusive association of poverty with the northern, urban-black population. In fact, she points out, poverty in late-20th-century America is principally not black, northern, or urban. Poor whites outnumber poor blacks two to one, and the largest percentage of poor are to be found in rural areas, with more in the South than in the North. Poverty transcends race, Jones says, but poor whites are chronically overlooked because they defy prevailing notions of racial superiority. Her focus here is on poverty among blacks, though, as she calls America ``a society conceived in slavery,'' thriving on a labor consciousness rooted in ``indentured servitude.'' (Jones draws some insightful analogies between yesterday's southern plantation and today's northern ghetto.) Radical economic inequality, the author implies, is the natural consequence of agrarian, commercial, and industrial capitalism--and with economic growth has come the inevitable impoverishment of various groups. A universal common denominator among the poor, she says, is that of dispossession--the crucial lack of ``place.'' Where one lives plays a significant role in the preservation of status--for both rich and poor--throughout generations. The history of the dispossessed is, Jones demonstrates, one of a ceaseless search for a little piece of land, an address, a place to call home. And ``if you do not have a home place, very little will ever be yours, really belong to you in the world.'' Thorough, richly researched, and written with moral fire. (Photos--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 399 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1ST edition (April 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465001270
• ISBN-13: 978-0465001279
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,240,744 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)