Dignity
Seeking Respect in Back Row America
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4.5 • 54 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
"A profound book.... It will break your heart but also leave you with hope." —J.D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy
"[A] deeply empathetic book." —The Economist
With stark photo essays and unforgettable true stories, Chris Arnade cuts through "expert" pontification on inequality, addiction, and poverty to allow those who have been left behind to define themselves on their own terms.
After abandoning his Wall Street career, Chris Arnade decided to document poverty and addiction in the Bronx. He began interviewing, photographing, and becoming close friends with homeless addicts, and spent hours in drug dens and McDonald's. Then he started driving across America to see how the rest of the country compared. He found the same types of stories everywhere, across lines of race, ethnicity, religion, and geography.
The people he got to know, from Alabama and California to Maine and Nevada, gave Arnade a new respect for the dignity and resilience of what he calls America's Back Row--those who lack the credentials and advantages of the so-called meritocratic upper class. The strivers in the Front Row, with their advanced degrees and upward mobility, see the Back Row's values as worthless. They scorn anyone who stays in a dying town or city as foolish, and mock anyone who clings to religion or tradition as naïve.
As Takeesha, a woman in the Bronx, told Arnade, she wants to be seen she sees herself: "a prostitute, a mother of six, and a child of God." This book is his attempt to help the rest of us truly see, hear, and respect millions of people who've been left behind.
Customer Reviews
Deep dive into the backside of America
A firsthand experience from the author, Dignity offers a detailed description of the forgotten side of America that TVs and movies never covered. Growing up in China, we’ve been told that the US is the strongest country in the world where all of its citizens enjoyed a high standard of living. Moving here as an international student, it didn’t long for me to witness the drastic differences between the university and the community outside. Davis CA was considered a relatively wealthy city and a quiet college town, yet a casual stroll outside of the UCD campus exposed me to the harsh realities of poverty and crime. Back to the book, from the bustling streets of the Bronx to almost-abandonned towns in the deep south, Dignity managed to portray in great detail the eccentric lives of the most unfortunate citizens of the richest country in the world. Needless to say, the everyday living experiences of those who lived there share little to nothing with the average middle class American. Coming from an academic background, it is necessary to remember the backside of the country that we’re supposed to help improve and make progress.