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Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass
by Theodore Dalrymple
from Ivan R. Dee, Publisher
Customer Reviews:
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Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0 
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Excellent, Thought-Provoking, Enlightening Read 
"Life At the Bottom" is a series of thoughtful essays based upon the experiences of a psychiatrist who works in a hospital serving the British "underclass" as well as serving inmates within prison.
Dalrymple demonstrates through real-life anecdotes what bureaucrats, the judicial system, and idealistic armchair generals deny -- namely, that government policies which reward irresponsibility make life worse -- not better -- for the truly underprivileged.
Being soft on crime means more victims of... more info
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Well Written and Interesting 
Life at the Bottom reminds me, in many ways, of Down and Out in Paris and London. It is an author looking at the lower classes from a fairly intimate and not academic view. Like Orwell's book there's not a ton of sociological jargon or academic noodling. That makes the book extremely readable but it also limits it to being a bit more anecdotal than far reaching.
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Completely lacking in empathy 
The author is just dripping in self-righteousness. He places 100% of the blame for bad situations on the decisions the poor have made. He shows no grace or empathy. His observations aren't necessarily wrong- but he extends his assumptions to everyone in the same situation.
This is how he explains that abused women choose to be abused:
"At first, of course, my female patients deny that the violence of their men was foreseeable. But when I ask them whether they think I would have recognized it in... more info
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Insightful and relevant
I was so struck by Dr Dalrymple's insights into the worldview of those at "Bottom" that I purchased six more books for distribution to friends. His essays speak volumes to what we can expect if the United States continues down the well intentioned but wrong-headed course of giving everything but expecting nothing in our cultural-societal context. Dalrymple's reflections illustrate what has happened in England to the mindset of the poor and most alarmingly, the upward migration of the self-destructive and... more info
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