Tag Archives: poverty

Dixie’s Forgotten People

Posted on March 12, 2016 by smellincoffee

Dixie’s Forgotten People: the South’s Poor Whites© 1979 Wayne Flynt200 pgs Just poor people is all we were, tryin’ to make a living out of black land dirt.. When Franklin Roosevelt referred to the forgotten man, he was likely thinking … Continue reading →

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That Was Then, This is Now

Posted on November 13, 2015 by smellincoffee

That Was Then, This is Now© 1971160 pages Mark and Byron were more than best friends; they were brothers. They grew up half-feral, raised by a struggling mom and struck by violence at an early age. Their fond childhood memories … Continue reading →

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The Long Loneliness

Posted on March 28, 2014 by smellincoffee

The Long Loneliness© 1952 Dorothy Day288 pages (Harper Collins, 2009(             Dorothy Day came of age amid the Great War, a child of struggling parents whose labors to make ends meet stayed with her even after they had achieved some … Continue reading →

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The Redneck Manifesto

Posted on March 17, 2014 by smellincoffee

The Redneck Manifesto: How Hicks, Hillbillies, and White Trash Became Amerca’s Scapegoats© 1998 Jim Goad272 pages Rednecks of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your bills.   Jim Goad’s The Redneck Manifesto is a raucous mixture of southern … Continue reading →

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Poor But Proud

Posted on February 1, 2014 by smellincoffee

Poor but Proud: Alabama’s Poor Whites© 2001 Wayne Flynt488 pages We might be poor but we’re proud And we’re living the best way we know how We don’t have much but we don’t look for pity Cause we’re country poor … Continue reading →

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The Working Poor

Posted on September 28, 2013 by smellincoffee

The Working Poor: Invisible in America© 2004 David Shipler352 pages “Like my daddy used to say — ‘Son, life’s hell to pay for when you’re poor — cause  always just outside the door’s another Hard Time.’”    (Jerry Reed) The … Continue reading →

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Free to Choose, Born to Buy (and Left to Die)

Posted on September 24, 2013 by smellincoffee

In the past two weeks I’ve been reading a series of books which connected together despite being on disparate subjects. Milton Friedman’s Free to Choose, published in the 1970s, argues for a completely free market — that is, one with … Continue reading →

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Reefer Madness

Posted on May 16, 2012 by smellincoffee

Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market310 pages© 2003 Eric Schlosser What do pornography, marijuana, and migrant labor have in common? They’re all factors in an underground economy, a vast web of cash-heavy transactions barred … Continue reading →

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Nickle and Dimed

Posted on April 18, 2012 by smellincoffee

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America© 2001 Barbara Ehrenreich221 pages In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich asked her editor at Harpers Weekly a question for which neither had an answer: how do people get by on the meager wages … Continue reading →

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The Road to Wigan Pier

Posted on March 21, 2010 by smellincoffee

The Road to Wigan Pier© 1937 George Orwell191 pages, including forward for members of the Left Book Club.  (My own copy: I adore tattered old paperbacks.)        I read this primarily for a European history class taught by … Continue reading →

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