Five Families: Mexican Case Studies in the Culture of Poverty

Rating:
Summary: I have reread this book 3 times
Review: I first read Five Families when I was a 23yo public health nurse from the Midwest, working in a Mexican-American barrio in East Los Angeles. A co-worker advised me to read this book in order to better understand the families I found myself working with.
I devoured it.
Then I came to realize that it's a seminal work in modern cultural anthropology, a book that will surely stand the test of time, a 'study' written in a style that makes it accessible to all readers.
Five Families is a dramatic and forceful account five poor Mexican families. It's a book that will leave you changed.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent account of differences in Poverty
Review: I just read this book, as I have read his other works. Oscar Lewis gives an extensive complete examination into the lives of extreme poverty. He gives exacting detail of the homes, lifestyles, and characteristics of the poor in Mexico. The last chapter delves with the poor who have accomplished "some wealth" and their upbringing still manages to evolve the same as if they were still poor. Wonderful thorough book!