Life at the Bottom Audiobook By Theodore Dalrymple cover art

Life at the Bottom

The Worldview that Makes the Underclass

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Life at the Bottom

By: Theodore Dalrymple
Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
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Here is a searing account - probably the best yet published - of life in the underclass and why it persists as it does.

Theodore Dalrymple, a British psychiatrist who treats the poor in a slum hospital and a prison in England, has seemingly seen it all. Yet in listening to and observing his patients, he is continually astonished by the latest twist of depravity that exceeds even his own considerable experience. Dalrymple's key insight in Life at the Bottom is that long-term poverty is caused not by economics, but by a dysfunctional set of values, one that is continually reinforced by an elite culture searching for victims. This culture persuades those at the bottom that they have no responsibility for their actions and are not the molders of their own lives.

Drawn from the pages of the cutting-edge political and cultural quarterly City Journal, Dalrymple's book draws upon scores of eye-opening, true-life vignettes that are by turns hilariously funny, chillingly horrifying, and all too revealing - sometimes all at once. And Dalrymple writes in prose that transcends journalism and achieves the quality of literature.

©2001 Theodore Dalrymple (P)2021 Tantor Ideologies & Doctrines Politics & Government Social Sciences Funny
Eye-opening Insights • Compelling Firsthand Accounts • Excellent Narration • Dry British Humor • Intellectual Analysis
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This should be mandatory reading for all incoming high school students! It might not chart the course for success but it definitely outlines the hallmarks of failure!

Amazing and unsettling book!

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hardcore russian-style self-directed national criticism, thought I've heard enough of such to ever find any appeal in variations, but this bespoke of such subjects from a standpoint of plain common sense that is simultaneously extremely depressing and motivating

one of my favs, but hardly likable

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Excellent book written by an intellectual man who has spent his life in the proverbial trenches. Must read.

Pure, unadulterated Truth

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What’s obvious to him is everywhere now, and if not stopped, the western civilization as we know it would collapse just like the Roman Empire

Reality check

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Brutally honest, but incredibly insightful. Amazing I was written 20 years ago because it is so applicable to today.

Brutally honest

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this book brought me to my past how I grew up. and remind me of all my friends are still stuck in his lifestyle. truly amazing insight and cause me to go deep in my own pass

this book explains a lot of my childhood

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It took me two chapters before I could successfully ignore the narrator's drawn out 'R' an 'S's'. The book itself paints a clear and disturbing picture.

Good one time read

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I can't say this book was enjoyable because of the truth it contains so sad as modern society crumbles and of course this crumbling begins at the top but is felt directly at the bottom.

Sad but true

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The narration is very monotone; the book, on the other hand is great as expected.

Monotone narration

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An unbiased real world view of how governments keep people poor to have an easily manipulated underclass the elites enrich themselves upon.

A stark reality

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