When Work Disappears

Description

In his long-awaited new book, our foremost authority on race and poverty challenges decades of liberal and conservative pieties to look squarely at the devastating effects that joblessness has had on our urban ghettos. Marshaling a vast array of data and the personal stories of hundreds of men and women, William Julius Wilson persuasively argues that the problems endemic to America's inner cities - from fatherless households to drugs and violent crime - stem directly from the disappearance of blue-collar jobs in the wake of a globalized economy. Wilson's achievement is to portray this crisis as one that affects all Americans, and to propose solutions whose benefits would be felt across our society. At a time when welfare is ending and our country's racial dialectic is more strained than ever before, When Work Disappears is a sane, courageous, and desperately important work.

First Sentence

An elderly woman who has lived in one inner-city neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago for more than forty years reflected: I've been here since March 21, 1953.

Subjects

Other Editions

• When Work Disappears : The World of the New Urban PoorPaperbackVintage1997-07-29
• When work disappearsElectronic resourceVintage Books1997-01-01
• When Work DisappearsAudio CassetteScholarly Audio1999-01-04