Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams | 
 enlarge | Author: Alfred Lubrano
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy Used: $7.86
You Save: $12.09 (61%)
New (27) Used (28) from $7.86
Avg. Customer Rating:  43 reviews
Sales Rank: 246871
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0471714399
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.5130973
EAN: 9780471714392
ASIN: 0471714399
Publication Date: February 22, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: LIGHTLY USED copy. NO MARKS INSIDE OR OUT. NICE COPY.
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
In Limbo, award-winning journalist Alfred Lubrano identifies and describes an overlooked cultural phenomenon: the internal conflict within individuals raised in blue-collar homes, now living white-collar lives. These people often find that the values of the working class are not sufficient guidance to navigate the white-collar world, where unspoken rules reflect primarily upper-class values. Torn between the world they were raised in and the life they aspire too, they hover between worlds, not quite accepted in either. Himself the son of a Brooklyn bricklayer, Lubrano informs his account with personal experience and interviews with other professionals living in limbo. For millions of Americans, these stories will serve as familiar reminders of the struggles of achieving the American Dream.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 38 more reviews...
 The Flash of Recognition June 24, 2008
Limbo is a swift read that provides plenty of "aha" moments even if you're not, strictly speaking, blue-collar. It's a little memoir, a little overview, and overall an interesting look at what happens when blue-collar students enter the white-collar world of college and beyond. Although I'm not, strictly-speaking, from a blue-collar family, I recognized many of the reactions Lubrano's interviewees had when they arrived on campuses like Amherst (my alma mater) and found worlds they had never really known about and had to navigate. Although not a scholarly book, Limbo rings true through the individuals Lubrano interviews and his own look at his life growing up in Brooklyn and going to college at Columbia. He covers not just college but marriage and work in a style that's comfortable and reportorial (he is, in fact, a reporter).
My biggest reservation is that Lubrano tends to fall for the romantic fallacy that all working class people are pure of heart and deed and all middle- and upper- middle class people are snobs and phonies. A little more distance might have given the book a sharper edge, but he capitalizes on his own experience well.
 So true! January 31, 2008
As someone who came from a blue-collar background himself, the author and those he interviews make a lot of sense, so much so that a lot of it seems to come straight out of my experience. Anyone else from that background reading the book will also likely experience plenty of "Oh Wow!" moments. The amazing thing is, though, is seeing who these people are today and having a genuine respect for those who managed to make it in the world despite the disadvantages the world had given them.
 Explaining U.S. social classes August 20, 2007
This book was an eye-opener for this non-college grad who holds a very white-collar, upscale position.
A must-read for anyone who wants to understand the social strata in today's society. And for anyone who
thinks a chasm doesn't exist between those who "have" -- and the rest of us.
NOTE: This was supposed to be a 5-star rating. I'm new at this....... DUH.
Ties that Bind November 4, 2006
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
America's official narrative says we're a classless society of strivers who make the crossing from humble beginnings to high achievement through effort, brains, and character. In fact, sociologists say with increasing frequency that where you start out on the socioeconomic ladder is the biggest determinant of where you'll end up: well-heeled parents count more than good brains or good character.
But there are people who have crossed over from the working class to the middle class. These men and women are the focus of Alfred Lubrano's well-written, insightful book on blue collar kids who clambered up the class ladder. How many are there? According to Lubrano, about a quarter of the 42 million manager/professionals in the American workforce are straddlers - college educated offspring of blue-collar parents. At some point in their working lives, most Americans have probably worked with or for a straddler.
Lubrano asserts that straddlers are caught in a no-man's land between their working class upbringing and their middle-class adult lives. They don't fit comfortably in either place, existing in a sort of class limbo. Their sense of difference starts as children; they're the wierdos who like to read and waste their time talking to teachers and other adults. The decision to go away to college alienates them further from their tightly-knit families. At college, they work to pay the freight, and watch with envy as their middle-class peers game the system and have ample time to goof off. On the job, straddlers struggle to suppress the blunt honesty that characterizes working class interaction and to master the shuck and jive of corporate meetings. On the battlefield of love, straddlers tend to seek out and marry one another - only in each other do they seem to find a marriage of true minds.
It sounds difficult, and it often is. What makes people want to storm the class barrier? Besides polling the experts, Lubrano interviews dozens of straddlers about the texture of their past and current lives. Some of them had an instinctive desire for a life freer or more interesting than what they grew up with. Others wanted better paying or higher status work than what their moms and dads did. Many of their wounds are surprisingly raw, even after they've successfully landed in the middle class. The straddlers who made the transition with the fewest visible scars seem to integrate their experiences into their personality rather than letting themselves be defined by the social labels others try to pin on them.
The payoff is that many straddlers feel that they're physically and psychologically tougher than their middle class counterparts, and more resilient in trying times. Lubrano has done all straddlers a service by shining on light on this overlooked segment of the population. Whether you are one, married one, or work with one, you'll learn a lot about this tough, proud, unsettled subculture.
Well researched & written! September 8, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I was born into a blue collar family in 1941, on Long Island. Lubrano was born into a blue collar family @ 1945, in Brooklyn. He graduated from Columbia, beginning a succesful career in journalism. I graduated from Harvard, becoming a lawyer. He writes with true authenticity: mothers, fathers, siblings, neighborhoods, gangs, Italian - American culture, Brooklyn vs. Manhattan, food, mating, etc. Since we have such similar backgrounds, I was able to appreciate the veracity & intimacy of much of what he wrote & felt. I recognized my family & that of my ex-wife on many pages. My 2 sons? They only appeared at the end of this book, born into much better financial circumstances. For those of a similar background, you will recognize yourself, repeatedly, occasionally with a sentimental tear. He terms blue collar types who emerged into the American middle class, or more "Straddlers". It was interesting to learn how so mnay Straddlers has made successful or unsuccessful adjustments to American middle class life. Lubrano has assembled a skilled resource team. Overall, an unusual subject & extremey well done.
|
|
|
