Charles Murray and the underclass: The developing debate

by Ruth (edit). Lister

Charles Murray is one of America's most respected social policy analysts. His ideas about the underclass, outlined in his classic Losing Ground, have entered the mainstream of the debate about poverty. Murray's thesis, that the underclass represents not a degree of poverty but a type of poverty, characterised by deviant attitudes towards parenting, work and crime, has been explosively controversial. It has also become more difficult to resist, as the deterioration of the social fabric has become increasingly obvious. In 1989 The Sunday Times brought Charles Murray to Britain to compare the British and US situations. In his article, subsequently published by the IEA as The Emerging British Underclass, Murray described himself as a 'visitor from a plague area come to see whether the disease is spreading'. In 1993 he returned to check on its progress, and the resulting article, also for The Sunday Times, was published with commentaries by critics of Murray's thesis, thus presenting the reader with a range of views on the issue. The success of the underclass titles, particularly as teaching aids in schools and universities, has led to the present omnibus edition which contains all of the original material from both volumes, together with a new introduction by Ruth Lister of Loughborough University and an update of the statistics by Alan Buckingham of the University of Sussex. "If you want to read one book specifically on the 'underclass', this is it." Community Care.

Genres: Politics

Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Frederick Hammill · Rating 1 out of 5]

Noteworthy for how boring it is.

[Gerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite his use of statistics the author attributes the so called underclass to more liberal attitudes in social matters ignoring such factors as extended life experiences and loosening ties binding couples together because of inequality within marriage.

At root however the cause of much of these issues is a combination of falling real wages as major corporations take a greater share in profits and court systems fail in making fathers responsible for the upkeep of their children and furthermore fail again in that enforcement.

[Alan Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting collection of essays. There is some clear merit in his views and, despite his american origins, he does seem to have anticipated recent developments. Frank Field's piece was informative and sensible.