It Takes Americans To See The Absolute Worst Before They Can Identify A Problem: A Required Reading List

Walker Evans....from the cradle to the factory to the grave.

"Worried that you are falling behind, not living as well as you once did? Or expected to?
That you are going to have to work extra hours, or take a second job, just to stay even with your bills?
That the company you have worked for all these years may dump you for a younger person?
Or that the pension you have been promised may not be there when you retire?
Worried, if you are on the bottom rung of the economic ladder, that you will never see a middle class lifestyle?
Or, if you are a single parent or part of a young working family, that you will never be able to save enough to buy a home? That you are paying more than your fair share of taxes?
Worried that the people who represent you in Congress are taking care of themselves and their friends at your expense?
You are right. Keep worrying."

-A selection from America: What Went Wrong by Donald L. Bartlett and James B. Steele, Pulitzer Prize winning reporters of the Philadelphia Inquirer.




America: What Went Wrong is an expanded version of a nine part series originally published by the Philadelphia Inquirer in October 1991 and while written nearly 20 years ago this brilliant journalism uncovers how the politicians and dealmakers on Wall Street have rigged the game to benefit the rich, while the middle class and everyone else remain powerless and sink deeper into the bottom economic brackets. This book is perhaps one of the most relevant studies out there in terms of providing a back drop to where we are RIGHT NOW and how we got ourselves into this mess. The politicians and executives have been playing with a marked deck for decades while we sit here watching Monday night football drinking Bud Light as we work our bodies and souls to the bone all for a hot and a cot and a seat on the express train to the graveyard. I am boiling inside.


I am currently reading these and recommend them to all:

-American Project: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto, By Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh
-Tally's Corner, By Elliot Liebow
-Subliminal Seduction, By Wilson Bryan Key
-Code of the Street, By Elijah Anderson
-When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor, By William Julius Wilson
-The Death and Life of Great American Cities, By Jane Jacobs

Instead of providing an Amazon link to these titles, I encourage all to go to your neighborhood mom and pop locally owned book store and buy them there.