Rating: 
Summary: Accurate Diagnosis, Wrong Prescription
Review: "Life at the Bottom" is a devastating critique of an empty liberalism and spurious leftism which denies all agency to the
ghetto poor. As someone who lives and works among the same group, I can testify Darylmple writes with both poignancy and spot-on accuracy. But his ideological grind - a trait other reviews have justifiably drawn attention to - circumvents a deeper analysis and in the end, wipes out his underlying argument.For example, if the welfare state is such a singular culprit, why is that Sweden, with a much more encompassing public welfare policy than either the U.S. or U.K., has little if any of the social pathology described here? If the thesis of social pathology due to dependency presented in "Life at the Bottom" holds true, than it would be logical that Sweden would have more and not less of it. The truth is that culture, especially including the market values conservatives triumph so loudly, is equally culprit. Once again, traditional left and right fault lines have to be transcended if
an honest inquiry is to be accomplished. Like many politically correct conservatives, Darylmple is content to cut off such inquiry at the exact point when we should be pressing forward.
Rating: 
Summary: GREAT STORIES, NO ANSWERS
Review: Ah yes.... Theodore Dalrymple... Well for those of us whose childhood was shaped by English relatives, Uncles, Parents, Grandparents, raised with pre-war, staid ethics, Dalrymple's bootstrap, let-me-sort-you-out young man, sort of philosophy will resonate well --- and be well understood. What it portends for actual understanding of the underclass mentality is quite another thing. Dalrymple writes well. His annecdotes are equal parts funny and mortifying. Dalrymple also offers glimpses at a side of life that few of the Upper-class (whose prejudices this book apparently is geared towards) ever get to see. I can see how he has become the British doyen of what is now called "conservatism" in the US. But for all the gems that pass as wisdom in this book there is precious little logic beyond the opinions expressed and even less attempt to justify the central thesis: that socially progessive people and intellectuals, in their attempts to tolerate everything, have wittingly or as dupes, contributed to the making of the underclass buy supplying it with ideas that justify the fact that they are not responsible for their own malaise. Dalrymple offers no evidence beyond annecdote. The idea that one must take responsibility for one's thoughts and actions is nothing more than a truism. It is not something that has been proved by either the inductive or deductive study of Dalrymple. Moreover it is not an idea that is exclusive to the underclass:
we find business executives that blame the government, their sales force and even their secretaries for their downfall. We find the scions of the rich blaming government and trade unions for their inability to make money. Corporate malfeasence often finds everyone willing to point their finger at other people while not in the least taking account of their own actions -- this mentality from members who are not of the underclass. Moreover reactionary thought often resorts to the reductionism of seeing the decaying hand of govt. as the ultimate agent of responsiblity for every misfortune known to mankind. One only needs to listen to Rush Limbaugh to realise that Clinton was responsible for everything from loose sexual mores to the war in Iraq. Vice is of course something that only a Democrat could be capable of....and graft only something that a Republican could dream of. Also I find it interesting that Dalrymple would cite socially progressive people and "liberals" as responsible for the ideas that lead and justify the underclass' own misfortune; I think that with all of the Yobbos that Dalrymple has met he would have learned that when a yobbo says "I'm gonna bash your head in mate" that that person is not affirming a 20th Century version of contemporary feminism, or rational liberal inquiry. Such a statement has more in common with Fascism and the notion of the redeeming nature of violence than any neo-liberal ethic. In final analysis Dalrymple suffers from the fact that although he TREATS the underclass he has never BEEN a member of the underclass. That doesn't make his stories less interesting. It just means that like our English Uncles and Grandfathers, Dalrymple is out of touch with the world and any philosophy that could better it beyond some ad-hoc bootstrap philosophy that passes as "wisdom." It also underwrites the great lie perpetrated by the likes of George Will, Rush Limbaughs, Margaret Thatcher et al., --- all bootstrap philosophers raised with silverspoons who never had to leap across this divide, who are quick to judge and ascribe simple remedies based upon personal prejudice and ideological truths. Dalrymple's book caters to this intellectual dishonesty and self-righteous blather that charasterises some of the world view of the upper-class; their flip side belief that they are responsible 100% for their success. That should not stop anyone from actively reading and enjoying this book. I would rate it within the top 10 of the books I have read this year. Like any good book you should be shaking and nodding your head in equal syncopation. But you would be sorely deluded, or maybe just feeding preconcieved notions if you think that you are getting any real insight into the explanation of the formation of the underclass.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful Snapshots of the Underclass
Review: Anyone familiar with the web magazine City Journal has already heard of Theodore Dalrymple. City Journal is one of the best magazines on the web and probably the single best for issues relating to urban concerns. Given the high standards of City Journal, it says something that Dalrymple's writing is probably the best on that site. As a doctor in a British prison and at a hospital in a British slum, he comes into daily contact with members of the underclass and, even more important, with the ideas that guide (or more appropriately, misguide) their lives.
LIFE AT THE BOTTOM is a collection of articles Dalrymple has previously published on the underclass. Many books that republish articles revolving around a central theme often hang together rather loosely. Fortunately that is not the case here. LATB provides a very coherent and very powerful snapshot of the mentality and psychology at play in the slums. The ideas overtly expressed by Dalrymple's patients are painfully seen by people not of the underclass as far more responsible for keeping people mired in poverty than any economic woes that they may be experiencing.
There are many stengths to this book. One of the most important is simply that the essays are so incredibly readable. Dalrymple's essays are very realistic and his subjects vividly portrayed. This ability to portray those in the underclass so well is particularly important given that many others in society refuse to even recognize that the underclass exists. One of the more frightening things I have read in Dalrymple's essays (though I must admit I cannot remember if it was in this book or one of his other published pieces) is when he told of a man at a dinner party who asked Dalrymple, in all seriousness, whether the essays he writes are true!
Another strength of this book was noted by Thomas Sowell. Many factors which keep the underclass in perpetual poverty and turmoil are internal factors such as how one thinks about crime and education rather than external factors such as economics. As most of the underclass in Britain are white, this book allows us to examine those internal social pathologies without the typical howls of racism for even raising the issue. (Though on the down side, this may be used to deny the applicability of Dalrymple's observations to Americans. One friend of mine, a standard leftist whose vision of race has typically been sucked into an ideological vortex, flatly rejected any statement I made about this book because of this.)
Dalrymple unfortunately does not spend much time with the question of what is to be done. The obvious answer is to look at what is being done wrong and then stop doing it. There is a significant problem with this, however. It is true that maladaptive behavior keeping one mired in poverty often seems obvious to those not in the underclass. Yet such people are not in the underclass specifically BECAUSE it is obvious to them. It is not obvious to those in the underclass itself.
Because of this, LATB, while very good in its own right, cannot be read in isolation. Other source material should be read. One excellent book is THE DREAM AND THE NIGHTMARE by Myron Magnet, which discusses how many of the ideas that have had such a devastating impact on the underclass originated among the rich and elite to distance themselves from the rubes of the middle class. The rich, however, usually have a social context preventing them from going off the cliff and also have large safety nets for those few who do. Yet when the same ideas are communicated to the poor, in a further attempt to marginalize middle class morality, the results are far more disastrous, both for the individuals involved and for society as a whole. This helps us to understand that one powerful way of addressing the problems of the underclass is to focus not simply on the underclass itself (though certainly this must be done) but also on the elites whose ideas have helped create this problem but whose finances have allowed them to live comfortably away from it.
If nothing else, LATB provides an excellent service by instructing us that the underclass does exist and that the problems attendant with it are due more to attitudes and opinions rather than lack of cash. To Dalrymple's dinner guest, the answer is yes, these stories are unfortunately all too real.
Rating:
Summary: Products of the environment
Review: As a left-leaner, I bought this book with great skepticism, but after finishing it, I must say that I agreed with many of Dalrymple's points. Although lacking in practical solutions to the issues presented, LATB opened my eyes to many social problems I had not thought about in great depth. To be sure, the most destructive consequence of extreme leftist social policy is the degraded root attitudes of the very people they try to help.
Rating: 
Summary: Written and reasoned well
Review: Dalrymple accurately describes the behavior of the underclass (I have observed similar behavior first-hand through our local foster care system) and offers a thoughtful analysis of that behavior. He presents opposing explanations of the same behavior and shows why those expanations cannot be true. He does all of this in an engaging style that made me loathe to put the book down.
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent and tragic
Review: Mr. Darymple describes the tradgedy of the underclass in Britain and how its mores are seeping into the middle class. A distubing but eloquent description of the decline that our civilization is going through. Among the best on the topic I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: A physician agrees
Review: Tellingly, perhaps, this collection of essays has had to be published in the USA - presumably so as not to offend the delicate and high-handed sensibilities of the British liberal intelligentsia, spluttering indignantly over their early-morning organic, fair-trade, shade-grown coffee. The decline of a culture based on values and morality is charted through the reflections of it's doctor/author - enmemshed in the very heart of English Socialism in the National Health Service. 'Theodore Dalrymple' (a pen-name) writes with startling accuracy and clarity about a whole sub-culture of British society that most of us accept with a weary resigantion as it threatens, jeers, jostles and vomits over the things we should all hold dear. More importantly, Dalrymple has taken a stand against this sub-culture by the mere act of chronicling it. In our current climate of moral equivalency, this is seen as a subversive act and would be brandished as 'racist' or 'classist' or 'exclusionary' - weasel words that attempt to inculcate an undeserved guilt in those who would make a stand against this lack of standards. This is a shocking book that dares to speak of unmentionable things - unmentionable, because they cut to the very heart of the dear Fabian dream that created the system giving birth to the values and attitudes of the people described. True, there are no solutions offered. But does one need such practical suggestions when the root cause of the descent of the underclass is cultural, and caused by a faulty, irrational, nihilistic, leftist philosophy that was given full voice in the 60's (eg:'do what makes you feel good'; 'don't judge me, man!'; 'you made me do it!'; etc, ad nauseam).
Rating:
Summary: Uncomfortable facts - but face reality!
Review: The review from Publisher's Weekly makes many points, but beings with a fallacy: Dalrymple's repeated claim is precisely that these people are NOT 'trapped in destructive behaviors and environments' but that most of them, while they may well feel trapped, are there as a consequence of their own choices. His examples and insights are particularly useful for Americans who naturally associate these behaviors with our own experience, where they correlate with race. Dalrymple makes it clear that they do correlate with culture (e.g. different populations from India now residing in Britain have very different crime and drop-out rates,though they all look 'Indian' and so should all have the same experience of racism or non-inclusion). The book is a collection of shorter pieces and could have used some editing of content (to reduce repetition) and of style (the vocabulary editing for the U.S. reader is inconsistent), but the cumulative evidence of Dalrymple's experience cannot be waved away. As he points out early on, if a person's fate in life is pre-determined by his social and physical environment, then we should all still be living in caves... Certainly in a modern and liberal society, citizens have the right to pursue their own lives and their own visions (and versions) of 'happiness.' But whether the rest of us should subsidize the layabouts is another question. Publisher's Weekly is quite wrong in saying that he 'offers few conrete or theoretical solutions.' Dalrymple is crystal clear on that: take responsibility for your own life; the greater community will help in an emergency, but will not provide a home and a meal ticket for years. This book is worthwhile reading for everyone.
Rating:
Summary: So True
Review: This book gives the reader a view of the underclass in England. The similarities between the underclass in England and that found in America are striking. The biggest difference lies in the racial makeup of the so-called underclass. In England almost the entire group is white. This allows one to view the problem of life at the bottom with the race issue removed from the equation. It also gives the impression that skin color has little to do with being "stuck" at the bottom. It would appear that "The Man" is an equal opportunity discriminator.
Rating:
Summary: Cultural Autopsy
Review: This book is a masterpiece of cultural dissection. It approaches Nietzchean proportions. One disturbed by the decadence and nihilism of western culture will find a kindred spirit in Dalrymple. This is the kind of book you can't put down.
| 
