English Working Class

A Bricklayer’s Tales: A Collection of Short Stories and Memoirs by Gary Troia is a raw, darkly humorous exploration of working-class struggles, self-destruction, and creative frustration. Told through the eyes of Ray Dennis—Troia’s disillusioned alter ego—these gritty, unflinching stories dive into the realities of depression, alcoholism, drug use, and the suffocating monotony of low-paid labour. From bleak construction sites to psychedelic escapes, each tale captures the highs and lows of a man trapped between artistic ambition and brutal wage slavery. Whether facing deportation in...

For all the attempts to understand the state of American politics and the blue/red divide, we've ignored what economic and cultural loss can do to pride. What happens, Arlie Russell Hochschild asks, when a proud people in a hard-hit region suffer the deep loss of pride and are confronted with a powerful political appeal that makes it feel "stolen"? Hochschild's research drew her to Pikeville, Kentucky, in the heart of Appalachia, within the whitest and second-poorest congressional district in the nation.

Conventional political wisdom views the two most consequential presidents of the 20th century - FDR and Ronald Reagan - as ideological opposites. FDR is hailed as the champion of big-government progressivism manifested in the New Deal. Reagan is seen as the crusader for conservatism dedicated to small government and free markets. But Henry Olsen argues that this assumption is wrong.

In this long-out-of-print oral history classic, Alice and Staughton Lynd chronicle the stories of more than two dozen working-class organizers who occupied factories, held sit-down strikes, walked out, picketed, and found other bold and innovative ways to fight for workers' rights. Rank and File brings the militancy of these firebrand organizers to life - whether it was in founding unions, challenging sexism and racism, safety violations, and management intimidation, or working for broader social changes.

The author of Baldwin's Harlem looks at the evolving culture, politics, economics, and spiritual life of Detroit - a blend of memoir, love letter, history, and clear-eyed reportage that explores the city's past, present, and future and its significance to the African American legacy and the nation's fabric.

Over the first two-thirds of the twentieth century, as many as eight million whites left the economically depressed southern countryside and migrated to the booming factory towns and cities of the industrial Midwest in search of work. The "hillbilly highway" was one of the largest internal relocations of poor and working people in American history, yet it has largely escaped close study by historians.

A fictionalized journey of many low-income and low-educated returnees from World War II as they attempt to build a life and a family in rural America. The story of this coal miner emulates the difficulties and challenges of many men of this period who do the best they can with the resources available to them in their home territory. June Buckhorn returns from war to the holler where he was born. He finds a wife and bonus children and attempts to build a new family. He takes the only job for which he is qualified which is in the dangerous coal mines of Kentucky. June is a mild mannered man ...

Combining classical Marxism, psychoanalysis, and the new labor history pioneered by E. P. Thompson and Herbert Gutman, David Roediger's widely acclaimed book provides an original study of the formative years of working-class racism in the United States. This, he argues, cannot be explained simply with reference to economic advantage; rather, white working-class racism is underpinned by a complex series of psychological and ideological mechanisms that reinforce racial stereotypes, and thus help to forge the identities of white workers in opposition to Blacks.

In May 1970, four days after Kent State, construction workers chased students through downtown Manhattan, beating scores of protesters bloody. As hardhats clashed with hippies, it soon became clear that something larger was underway - Democrats were at war with themselves. In The Hardhat Riot, David Paul Kuhn tells the fateful story of when the white working class first turned against liberalism, when Richard Nixon seized the breach, and America was forever changed.

Two superheroes become suspicious of their city's most powerful hero, the seemingly-invulnerable Magma Man, when something he says during a poker game doesn't add up. Why would he lie? Was he trying to protect someone? Was he drunk? Okay, he was probably drunk. But, is he in league with the villain? Is he the villain? And if he is, how can he be stopped? Follow Speed Chicken and Cambio as they pursue the answers to these questions, putting them in cahoots with a powerless wannabe superhero named Wombat, and realize that the fate of an entire planet weighs in the balance.

It’s a life too big and a story too extraordinary for just one book. Jimmy Barnes has lived many lives—from Glaswegian migrant kid to iconic front man, from solo superstar to proud father of his own musical clan. In this hugely anticipated sequel to his critically acclaimed best seller Working Class Boy, Jimmy picks up the story of his life as he leaves Adelaide in the back of an old truck with a then unknown band called Cold Chisel.

Heiress Leah Sinclair is finally out from under the watch of her overprotective parents, and she’s ready to let loose and enter a new era — one filled with travel, exploration, adventure, and most of all… men. And what better options are there than charity auction where she can win a date with a sexy alien? Aano and Yahn is working a complex operation when things go sideways, and when they stumble upon a charity date auction, they figure it’s the perfect place to hide. And when Leah, a willing, slightly ditzy heiress offers them a tour of her ship, they see the perfect opportunity ...

Who is killing America? Is it really Donald Trump and a GOP filled with white supremacists? In this audiobook, Dinesh D’Souza makes the provocative case that Democrats are the ones killing America by turning it into a massive nanny state modeled on the Southern plantation system. Death of a Nation's bracing alternative vision of American history explains the Democratic Party's dark past, reinterprets the roles of figures like Van Buren, FDR, and LBJ, and exposes the hidden truth that racism comes not from Trump or the conservative right but rather from Democrats.

In Sunset Harbor, change comes crashing like ocean waves in Tides of Change. Lucy Chen has run The Anchor for years, upholding her grandfather’s legacy against mounting pressures. When Will Harrison, a wealthy summer resident with a hidden past, arrives determined to rescue his family’s crumbling property, sparks fly from their very first clash. Their differing worlds ignite a battle of wills, forcing them into an unlikely partnership as local tensions heat up. Lucy’s deep ties to the town’s working-class roots collide with Will’s well-guarded secrets and high-society airs, making...

Prohibition is a dangerous time to be a working-class woman in New York City, but Vivian Kelly has finally found some measure of stability and freedom. By day, she’s a respectable shop assistant, delivering luxurious dresses to the city’s wealthy and elite. At night, she joins the madcap revelry of New York’s underworld, serving illegal drinks and dancing into the morning at a secretive, back-alley speakeasy known as the Nightingale. She's found, if not love, then something like it with her bootlegger sweetheart, Leo.

In Wall Street’s War on Workers, Les Leopold, co-founder of the Labor Institute, provides a clear lens with which we can see how healthy corporations in the United States have used mass layoffs and stock buybacks to enrich shareholders at the expense of employees. With detailed research and concise language, Leopold explains why mass layoffs occur and how our current laws and regulations allow companies to turn these layoffs into short-term financial gains.

In Labor's Love Lost, noted sociologist Andrew Cherlin offers a new historical assessment of the rise and fall of working-class families in America, demonstrating how momentous social and economic transformations have contributed to the collapse of this once-stable social class and what this seismic cultural shift means for the nation's future.

The general population refers to them as "Odds", people who suffer from AOHD (Adult Onset Hyper-Development Disorder). Such people wake up one day to find that they're suddenly super-human. They can do things like leap tall buildings. Lift bulldozers over their heads. Read minds. Throw fireballs. Melt steel with a thought. Fly at supersonic speeds, and so on. And what happens? Uncle Sam makes them sign up with the Feds and punch a clock. Or else.

Carlos Bulosan’s idealism and ambition would seem to position him for certain success in America, even given how young he is when he first makes the journey from the Philippines. However, after arriving in Seattle, employers are far more concerned with his Filipino background than they are with his character. Low-paying jobs - and an uncertain future - remain his daily reality.

Here is the original manuscript of Raymond Carver's seminal 1981 collection, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. Carver is one of the most celebrated short-story writers in American literature - his style is both instantly recognizable and hugely influential - and the pieces in What We Talk About..., which portray the gritty loves and lives of the American working class, are counted among the foundation stones of the contemporary short story.