"A history of the class system in America from the colonial era to the present illuminates the crucial legacy of the underprivileged white demographic, citing the pivotal contributions of lower-class white workers in wartime, social policy, and the rise of the Republican Party,"--NoveList.

"When Colin Barrett's debut Young Skins was published, it swept up several major literary awards, and, in both its linguistic originality and sharply drawn portraits of working-class Ireland, earned Barrett comparisons to Faulkner, Hardy, and Musil. Now, in a blistering follow-up collection, Barrett brings together eight character-driven stories, each showcasing his inimitably observant eye and darkly funny style. A quiet night in a local pub is shattered...

"The award-wining poet returns to his home place in the Pacific Northwest, where the neighborhood simmers with the chemical presence of human trouble, and sparks of beauty coexist with danger. This sound-driven, image-driven collection carries us to the lower-middle class Portland neighborhood of Lents, where Dickman was raised by a single mother. Here, as a skateboarding boy practices his kick-flip on the street, enlightenment simmers under the surface...

"Mike Muñoz is a young Mexican American not too many years out of high school--and just fired from his latest gig as a lawn boy on a landscaping crew. Though he tries time and again to get his foot on the first rung of that ladder to success, he can't seem to get a break. But then things start to change for Mike, and after a raucous, jarring, and challenging trip, he finds he can finally see the future and his place in it"--

The quality of a persons life in ancient Roman times much like that of today depended largely on their livelihood. The rich patricians traditionally focused their wealth on land ownership and the less wealthy commoner did most of the farming, artisanship, trading, and construction. In this book, the occupations of ancient Romans are investigated through first and accounts, detailed illustrations, and fact panels that focused on key figures of Roman...

A super-rich and pretentious socialite winds up in the world of a struggling carpenter with four kids.

"The untold story of the women killed by Jack the Ripper--and a gripping portrait of Victorian London--[this book] changes the narrative of these murders forever. Polly, Annie, Elisabeth, Catherine, and Mary Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. They came from some of London's wealthiest and poorest neighborhoods, from the factory towns of middle England, and from Wales and Sweden. They wrote ballads, ran coffeehouses, lived on...

Paul Morel's childhood and early manhood in the English midlands are deeply affected by his devotion to and concern for his dominating mother.