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Theodore Dalrymple

Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass Paperback – March 8, 2003

by Theodore Dalrymple (Author)

342 customer reviews

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Editorial Reviews

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Truthful―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)

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About the 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.

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Product details

Paperback: 284 pages

Publisher: Ivan R. Dee (March 8, 2003)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 9781566635059

ISBN-13: 978-1566635059

ASIN: 1566635055

Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.7 x 8.8 inches

Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 342 customer reviews

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #63,748 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

#28 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > Mental Illness

#85 in Books > History > Europe > Great Britain > England

#102 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Specific Topics > Political Economy

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life at the bottom welfare state theodore dalrymple thomas sowell personal responsibility collection of essays united states british underclass well written years ago required reading political correctness must read thought provoking middle class common sense lower class great britain city journal politically correct

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Charlie G
Great book and fast read
February 15, 2017
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
Great book and fast read. While it probably could be reduced by 25%, it doesn't seem repetitive really. The author strikes me as someone who isn't going after a segment with a popular view of society, but rather as someone who slowly changed his own views from his career. I think this is mostly accomplished because the author doesn't come across as mean or vindictive.

The best line of the book is when he counters the people who say they are "easily led". He points out that he's never heard of someone who was easily led to a better life. They're always "easily led" to drugs or ignorance.

Even if you enjoy it, the book is somewhat depressing and you'll ask yourself what the point his story is. But I think this is actually his goal - to show a realistic, unapologetic depressing look on some of the poor.
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Clark L. Coleman
What effect do elite cultural ideas have on the underclass?
June 13, 2018
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
As noted in other reviews, this book is a collection of essays that Dalrymple wrote during his years as a prison psychologist. The basic theme is that the progressive liberal views on crime, criminals, prison, etc., that we might think are confined to academic and intellectual circles have permeated the entire society and criminals are adversely affected by these ideas. Progressives talk about criminals being victims of society, and prisoners come to Dalrymple claiming to be exactly that. Liberal sociologists speak of prisons as if their sole purpose is to provide therapy and rehabilitation, with isolation from society, deterrence, etc., being ignored, and Dalrymple hears "Prison's no good to me, Doctor; prison's not what I need." (page 216) Sociologists of crime hold academic conferences about how criminal behavior is an addiction, a compulsion that cannot be resisted, and prisoners ask for therapy for their addiction. The cultural elite preach nihilism and despair, the system is rigged against you, it's all about who you know and not merit, etc., and then we are surprised at the pathetic sight of the elderly wasting their monthly pension income on slot machines and lottery tickets.

The subtitle of the book is "The Worldview That Makes the Underclass." The worldview we glimpse in these pages does not originate with the underclass, but it seeps into their minds from the cultural air they breathe, exhaled by the liberal elite who seem not to understand that ideas do indeed have consequences. I know of no other book that makes that insightful connection is such a powerful way. Hence, the recommendation on the cover from Thomas Sowell, "A classic for our times. It is as fundamental for understanding the world we live in as the three R's." (Sowell often cites stories from Dalrymple in his columns, concluding the citation with the point that the American reader probably thinks the story comes from a black urban environment, but the story actually comes from lower-class British white people. It is the worldview, not the skin color, that is decisive.)
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bluemax_1
We're responsible for our own choices. This book illustrates the downfalls of not accepting that responsibility
October 24, 2016
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
An excellent and eye opening look into the personal mentalities, choices and patterns of behavior that serve to perpetuate the misery of the underclass.

Unfortunately, the kinds of people who would be best served by reading this book (awareness and acknowledgement of a habitual/behavioral problem is, after all, the first step), will never read it.

The other group that would be well served to read this are the bleeding hearts who support overly liberal policies. This book provides some disturbingly thought provoking insights into the UK's uber 'Politically Correct' policies and the effects they've had on mentalities and education over there.

Many of the articles written by the author and compiled in this book were written in the 90's and early 2000's and yet, some folks are still pushing the US in that direction, despite contraindications from other countries who've already been there. A reader might be inclined to ask, "Why is that?"
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Noah Moerbeek
Without a Mea Culpa What Happens to Us
November 15, 2015
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
This book should be required reading for Priests, charity workers, inner city teachers, and those who wish to work to alleviate corporeal suffering of all kinds. Too often people start these labors expecting gratitude from the recipients of charity only to find the opposite. Those who wish to love and serve the poor should be emotionally prepared for the challenges that face them and not come into the labor with Hallmark card sentimentality which this book will rid from them. Life at the bottom is a page turning collection of essays that illustrate the bad fruit begotten by socialism, sentimentality, relativism and other modern manifestations of error. If a person wants to know what happens to societies that forget how to say mea culpa, amend their lives and do penance for their past sins look here. Our modern ideas rooted in a rejection of truth and justice lead to great misery, and unhappy people no matter how much government welfare is thrown at them.

I will be keeping my copy to gird myself both to reread, lend out and use as a reference in the future.
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