Worlds Of Pain: Life In The Working-class Family

by Lillian B. Rubin

The classic that is widely acknowledged to be the most valuable and insightful book ever written on the dynamics of working-class family life by a renowned sociologist, psychotherapist, and bestselling author.One of the most devastating critiques of contemporary American life that I have read.--Michael B. Katz Professor of History, York UniversityThis is a sensitive and compassionate portrayal of childhood, marriage, and adult life among the hard-working not-quite poor. It is an important contribution to our understanding of ourselves.--Robert S. Weiss, author of Marital Separation

Genres: Sociology, Nonfiction, Family, Economics, Class, Gender, Read For School

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[James Payne]

Brutal. So sad. Hits too close to home. This book was published the year my parents had their first child. Resonance.

So much human potential and happiness is needlessly destroyed by the drive for superfluous profit. This book, and the precarious forty years that have elapsed since its publication, are testaments to how corrosive America's ideological fixation on free-market capitalism has been for our collective lived experience. The U.S. is like an alcoholic drinking because they are sad they're an alcoholic. The effective feudalism, the intergenerational oppression the working-class is held in, due to ideology, must end. It's not even pragmatic to be wasting lives in this manner. It's slow sadism.

[Comrade Zupa Ogórkowa]

Though written in 1970, an illuminating portrait of working class life and the impact of class on the decisions, or lack thereof, for those within that class: those of marriage, children, and work and the ways class impacts the experience of satisfaction and fulfillment within those realms and how those realms interact and impact each other. Though dated by today’s standards, I could see many generations of my family in the pages of this book and at times it felt painful to see the legacy of this life. And if in fact we didn’t grow up as poor as the people in this book, being raised by people who did grow up this way still leaves their trace: in authoritarian parenting style, pragmatic discussions about careers paths leaving little room for dreaming and Utopianism, and the short and blunt communication style of parents who work hard with little time to themselves.

[DM]

I love sociology; this is a classic for a reason. Doesn’t really analyse race and there’s a kind of placeless ness that I don’t think would be there today. But really excellent analysis on class, subjectivity, gender, and family life. Touches on alienation and consumerism. Also just wow realizing how deeply what actually happened (de-industrialization and massive rise of debt-furled higher Ed) was so far off from what analysts predicted.

[Reanin Mcroberts]

I think I read this in college and it didn't mean that much to me or I would still have it. But it wad just referenced in something I'm reading so I might give it another shot. Sometimes you're not ready 🤷‍♀️

[Cliff]

Rubin provides a honest and grim look into the life of working class families, at a time that is often looked at with nostalgia.

[Mary Karpel-Jergic]

I understand why this was a seminal piece of sociological research into class at the time it was published. Unfortunately, reading it now, the voices in the book sound embedded in a time that has passed and the mammoth changes we have experienced since the book was published have altered the class landscape in such major ways that there is difficulty in crossing this time lapse. However economic deprivation will only ever create 'mounting disadvantages' and from what I see all around me it looks worse.

Poverty is exceptionally sad and some of Rubin's early observations in her book manages to articulate some of this.

[Emily]

To get the whole world out of bed
And washed, and dressed, and warmed, and fed,
To work, and back to bed again,
Believe me, Saul, costs worlds of pain.


I loved this book and its depiction of the working class. My only sadness is how dated it is. I wish someone would recommend a similar but more current study.

[Christy Hammer]

An excellent book (now background but excellent qualitative data) for Social Problems, Introduction to Sociology, Family, or Social Psychology.

[Amber]

kinda depressing but an easy read and, hmmmm, what's the word, "informative" I suppose

[David]

a deeply moving and perceptive sociological study...

[Nancy]

A study of working class families in the 1970s. This kind of book (almost) makes me want to go back to graduate school.

[Regil Aput]

I always believe that early marriage isn't the way out from poverty.

[Julia]

I read this in 1983 for a Women's Studies course and was very impressed. The 5-star rating is based on my impression at the time (I haven't re-read recently, but it is still on my bookshelf).

[Elizabeth Alford]

Great insight into the minds and hearts of working class families.