The New Minority: White Working Class Politics in an Age of Immigration and Inequality

by Justin Gest

It wasn't so long ago that the white working class occupied the middle of British and American societies. But today members of the same demographic, feeling silenced and ignored by mainstream parties, have moved to the political margins. In the United States and the United Kingdom, economic disenfranchisement, nativist sentiments and fear of the unknown among this group have even inspired the creation of new right-wing parties and resulted in a remarkable level of support for fringe political candidates, most notably Donald Trump.

Answers to the question of how to rebuild centrist coalitions in both the U.S. and U.K. have become increasingly elusive. How did a group of people synonymous with Middle Britain and Middle America drift to the ends of the political spectrum? What drives their emerging radicalism? And what could possibly lead a group with such enduring numerical power to, in many instances, consider themselves a "minority" in the countries they once defined? In The New Minority , Justin Gest speaks to people living in once thriving working class cities--Youngstown, Ohio and Dagenham, England--to arrive at a nuanced understanding of their political attitudes and behaviors. In this daring and compelling book, he makes the case that tension between the vestiges of white working class power and its perceived loss have produced the unique phenomenon of white working class radicalization.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Sociology, Political Science, Economics, Class, History

268 pages, Hardcover

Published October 13, 2016

Reviews

[Kitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

olen juba tükk aega otsinud sellist raamatut, mis seletaks mulle lahti, mida mõtleb ja tunneb praegusel ajal briti valge töölisklass ja miks nad hääletavad nii, nagu nad hääletavad. (ameerika pool oli mul JD Vance'i "Hillbilly Elegy" kaudu justkui juba olemas, seda enam ei otsinud.) ja näe, leidsin - Gest on just seda uurinud (boonusena siis ikkagi nii briti kui ameerika vaadet).

kuna tegu on konkreetse teadustöö tulemuste avaldamisega, siis on see pigem ikka päris- kui populaarteaduslik raamat, st viidete, tabelite, graafikute ja statistikaga pole tagasi hoitud. vastust otsitakse kolmele küsimusele: kas valge töölisklassi marginaliseerumine ja polariseerumine USAs ja UKs on üks ja sama asi; kas uuritavad on ehk lihtsalt rassistid; miks mõned uuritavad radikaliseeruvad.

mind isiklikult need konkreetsed küsimused nii väga ei huvitanudki (no see rassismi osa vast), aga metoodika on selline, et kõigepealt valis Gest välja kaks konkreetset kogukonda - ühe Ida-Londonis ja ühe Ohios - ja siis elas kummaski pool aastat ja viis läbi põhjaliku etnograafilise uurimuse. ehk siis lihtsalt... kuulas inimesi. see kõik oli kohutavalt huvitav ja andis mulle vastused enamusele küsimustele, mis mul on sel teemal tekkinud, ja paljudele, mida ma ei osanudki küsida.

kui hästi lühidalt kokku võtta, siis... kõik taandub väärtustele ja eneseväärikusele. just sellest viimasest tunneb valge töölisklass olevat end ilma jäetud; ja neile paistab, et keegi teine on võitnud selle arvelt, et nemad kaotasid. (kes ja milline teine, see on juba ameeriklaste ja brittide puhul veidi erinev.) ja see rassism... kuulan nüüd veidi teise eelhäälestusega väiteid, mis algavad sõnadega "ma ei ole rassist, aga...," sest on võimalik, et ta tõesti ei ole rassist.

pärast tuleb veel küsitlusi ja statistikat ja järeldusi ja lõpupoole öeldakse isegi välja sõnad "Brexit" ja "Trump", aga selle aja peale oli minu jaoks küll selgunud, et need ei olegi iseenesest nii olulised. pigem sümptomid kui midagi muud. (väljaandmise aeg tundub olevat selline magus hetk, kus Brexiti hääletus on juba toimunud, aga Trump on alles presidendikandidaadi kandidaat.)

kui raamatu kaane kinni olin löönud, siis natuke googeldasin autorit ja sain teada, et ta on kirjutanud veel ühe väga sarnase pealkirjaga raamatu: "The White Working Class: What Everyone Needs to Know". selle kohta suutsin leida täpselt üheainsa arvustuse, aga kirjelduse põhjal tundub, et tegu _võib_ olla sama uurimuse populaarteaduslikuma variandiga - vähem statistikat ja analüüsi, rohkem sedasama etnograafiat. aga ega ma kindel pole. ja kohe praegu siia otsa seda ostma ka ei torma, sest kõik see tahab seedimist.

[Billie Pritchett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Justin Gest's The New Minority is, as its subtitle says, about white working class people, particularly in England and the United States, who are coping with what they see as problems of immigration and economic inequality. As Gest says in the book himself, although white working class people really do count as a minority, different in too many respects from their white upper-class counterparts, the white working class often mistakenly identifies its problem as other minority groups and fails to see the possibility for solidarity in joining together with these other groups as a class to protest upper-class economic policy.

Gest's book is a work of sociology and focuses on white working class people in two towns specifically: Youngstown, Ohio and Dagenham, England. The two towns represent two areas of the country that once thrived on manufacturing but now that manufacturing has left the white working class finds themselves poor. There are differences in self-perception and perceived problems in the two towns but there are some commonalities. One worth mentioning off the bat is that when politicians cater to them, they typically resent being lumped together with welfare recipients. Even though the white working class occasionally needs unemployment or welfare benefits, they are worried about perceiving as moochers and have adopted much of the political rhetoric about how welfare recipients are moochers.

Regarding issues of immigration, there is in general animosity toward immigrant groups. The white working class accuses immigrants of taking away jobs and the government of not doing more to protect native industries. There is something to the working class criticism of immigration policy. Immigration policy in terms of employment has mostly only targeted the working class and not the expert classes or technocrats. In other words, it's working class jobs that are taken by immigrants but not the job of doctors and experts in the so-called technical industries. This is because doctors and teachers and so on have unions to bar immigrants from taking their positions. Unions: something the working class has in short supply.

Immigration is often perceived to be of a piece with immigration, which, as just indicated, is partly true. Immigrants more easily replace factory workers than they replace doctors, for instance. There is a helplessness perceived toward using government to enact economic changes to ameliorate equality, and generally when working class voters choose candidates they choose candidates who do not have their economic interests in hard. These candidates may self-identify with the heartland, the Salt of the Earth, and so on, but apart from rhetoric and the occasional social wedge issue, nothing is done on the economic front, the area where it matters, that could help these people.

This book is a diagnosis of the problem, and it poses some solutions at the end. Some have criticized the work for being too sympathetic to its subjects. But it's a work of sociology, not a polemic, and before anyone can do anything to solve problems, we have to first off understand what people perceive as the problems, whether they be right or wrong.

[Carl A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well researched, documented and relevant discussion - detail, context and perspective not found on Cable TV.

In many ways a "hard" but important subject concerning portions of the U.K./US societies. Written before the November election puts the rise of Candidate Donald Trump into perspective.

Recommend for individuals who wish to better understand contemporary political events, issues and political fault lines.

Carl Gallozzi

[Bruce Reiter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a two hundred page case study contrasting the Dagenham-Barking areas of East London with Youngstown, Ohio. It is an excellent look at the perceptions of what is left of the white working class raised in mill towns or factory towns and its support of populist candidates such as Donald Trump. The message "Make America Great, Again" resonates with a community clinging to a past where it was economically secure and reasonably homogenous. Both parties of government have cast the American industrial worker aside in favor of an inexpensive global workforce. The theory was that people would retrain and be mobile, moving to the next job location. In many cases this has not happened and the level of discontent has risen due in part to the changing face of poor or lackluster communities being "invaded" by immigrants who are now in competition for the lower paying jobs. The English have their own problems because of the traditional class system but the extreme right and left appears to be coalescing which could be scarier. Our Democrat Party lost the Rust Belt due to inattention. It was not the Republicans who won, but Donald Trump. The economic elite will get the spoils.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was interesting, but I'm not sure how you write about the white working class without a discussion of race or racism. Gest calls it nostalgia, but it's really a yearning for an even more strident racial caste system. Wwc is upset because people of color get cash assistance and, undocumented immigrants take job - okay, while noting this isn't the case, he doesn't delve into the dog-whistle these themes are. Gist ends asking us not to patronize the wwc, but then he does that by not holding them accountable for the racialized politics and voting - why do they vote against their own social and economic interests? It's not just racism, but that's a key piece that he's missed, and without this angle, the work misses the complexity of this group. No they aren't monsters, they're complex people trying to meet their groups' needs and race, not class is the rallying point - but they don't have a language for that kind of identity politics, nor a theorizing of whiteness that considers class - and that, not that people of color are competing with them, is the shame of their social, economic and political plight.

[Maryam Siddique · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far, I have read more of the books highlighting the issues of immigrants as a minority in the US. Gest's book has brought forward the issues of whites as a minority in their own States, US and UK. The methodology he has used to reveal the issues and sentiments of the white working class is a detailed survey of the people of this class. The direct involvement of people's responses to the very matter in the book is very helpful to comprehend and analyze the subject matter.

It is ironic that the people admitted the dominance and oppression of whites over people of color in the past, but they do not accept the current situation in which the tables have turned around and the white working class has fallen into a subordinate position. The author uses the word “externality” to describe their position in the country; they were forced towards the fringes in their own land. The way Gest writes that whites were always in the center and they do not deserve to become peripheral symbolizes colonial thought processes embedded in the mindsets of the whites. It disturbs them to be in an inferior position because they have always seen themselves superior and the blacks inferior to them (as their slaves).

Gest has very well explained the interviewees’ responses which showed their resentfulness against the black immigrants. People of the white working class have this in their minds that the immigrants are utilizing resources of the State due to which they are suffering economically. This is why they are insecure of the immigrants. In my point of view, immigrants are not to be blamed for the miserable condition of white working-class. The downfall of this class is a consequence of the demise of industries and high demands of employment. I would agree to Gest that it was the incapability of the government which did not introduce new opportunities to the people of the white working class who were not highly qualified. Therefore, it was also the failure of the American dream as people were not provided with equal opportunities.

Gest in his book "The New Minority: White Working Class Politics in an Age of Immigration and Inequality" presents an ethnographic record of white working class living as the new minority in the US and UK. He sheds light on the striking contrast between the status of the white working class before and after the mid-20th century. Whites who once defined the center of their States fell towards the periphery in their own land. The book is survey-based research that undertakes various analyses of public attitudes about immigration and minority politics. Before the mid-20th century, 48% of the white working-class people depended on good income jobs without having higher education. There came a downfall to these people due to deterioration of the manufacturing sector and the emergence of high technology economics.

In order to gain back their stability in political, economic, and social matters, the white working class decided to vote for Trump’s Republican Party. The reason they chose to vote for Trump is that he addressed the silent majority – the white working class who was silenced due to an enormous loss of their power and identity. Trump spoke for their rights under the slogan of “America First”. He came with anti-immigrant policies; deporting the immigrants and giving back the opportunities to the white working class.

[Carlos · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an informative look at the declining numbers but increasing political salience of the white working class in the US and the UK. Gest seeks to chronicle the political alienation of these communities through intensive case-studies of the post-industrial cities of Youngstown, Ohio and Dagenham, England. Both of these cities expanded rapidly as industrial centers in the first half of the 20th century and declined sharply in face of globalizing competition during the last quarter of the 20th century. The rapid decline of the cities led to massive “white flight” that left minorities and immigrants as a larger percentage of the diminished population exacerbating racial and nativist conflicts. The lack of easy answers for the painful transition to a post-industrial economy combined with the distaste for the preponderance of racist and xenophobic views left these communities neglected by mainstream politicians and easy prey for demagogues validating those views and promising to fix all by deporting all the immigrants. While Gest’s focus is to quantify and explain the political withdrawal of these communities his analysis highlights the difficulty of justifying in their eyes the validity of a world devoid off the security and status they took for granted.

[Marcus E. Huffman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable read

I read this very slowly, while observing people I thought exhibited some of the characteristics of this “minority.” The stories at the beginning are interesting. The statistics sections might bore the average reader, though they appealed to me as a political science major. I think any aspiring politician would benefit from reading the last two chapters, as the author demonstrated the kinds of candidates and the appealing platforms that would best attract this “minority’s” vote in future elections. Though I don’t necessarily agree with the idea that white men of any socioeconomic status are the minority, I do understand the reason for the title and thesis of the book, as it specifically focuses on a subset of white voters. It’s a good book.

[Gmaharriet · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not an easy book to get into with all the discussion of how the author arranged his subject interviews. If you can get through that, it draws some interesting conclusions which sound spot on. He refrains from making judgments on whether his subjects are right/wrong to feel the way they do, and leaves it to the reader to readily see what he leaves mostly unsaid.

The research covered an area in Ohio and one in East London. Having never been to England, I found it harder to understand that portion of his research, but I learned a lot. The book was well worth my time.

[Will Atkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh how I wish I could give this book 5 stars! Based on the number of regression tables in the appendix, and the style of writing, I have to assume this was the author’s PhD dissertation, or similar. I’m not going to lie, this was a tough slog, and I often needed to look up words the author was using. When you add to that the half the book that was focused on UK politics, this was just a difficult book to get through.

But those who do, are rewarded with some of the best explanations of white, working class concerns I’ve ever seen.

[Rick Folker · Rating 4 out of 5]

some valid arguments but I questioned some of the methods he used and conclusions he drew from interviews with white working class people. I also felt that comparing East end London to Youngstown, Ohio was confusing and unnecessary - he should have chosen Youngstown or East end and not have tried to tackle both constituencies.

[Edward Amato · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gest's research basically backs J.D. Vance's story, "Hillbilly Elegy." If reveals why Republicans have been doing so well in the rust belt and why J. D. Vance is now a Senator representing Ohio. Informative and interesting. The ending chapters on actual research analysis is boring but I did like the ethnological aspects of Gest's research.

[Carl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just too academic for my taste; I think it actually is a dissertation for a degree. On the plus side, there's a detailed & comprehensive character study into Trump's reprehensibles & the world they inhabit.

[Pechague · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll admit it's a bit boring to read. But this book provides important insights into understanding the rationale behind many voting patterns across the world these days (if one dares to extend the analyses beyond the cases covered by the author).

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Academic study of political engagement in 2 cities devastated by closure of heavy industry, one in US and one in England. Food for thought but written with the usual social science excessive verbiage.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A scholarly book, and therefore a bit dry, but still compelling. I’m not an academic, so I can’t comment on the writer’s methodology. Should be required reading for anyone in America or the UK who fashions themselves left-leaning, though.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some excellent insights scattered throughout (mostly in the last third) but it ultimately leans too much on quotes from the interviewees.

[Raevyn K · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

I hate this book with a fiery passion

[Andrew Figueiredo · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the more interesting pieces on the White Working Class, although it's a study/thesis, so be warned that it's a little denser than a casual read.

[Bukata456 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very insightful look into working class opinions of the new racial divide.

[Julian · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*
Excellent in some parts but let down by repetition

[David Shimm · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tedious.

[Maryann Moffit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read

Never thought about comparing to Britain. Facts and statistics were I quite informative. Worth the read. For sure. Learned a lot.

[Janessa Miller]

I read this for a school project about Appalachia. It contains great research on the working class whites of America and Britain, and provides a good explanation for the votes that led to Trump and Brexit.