Dignity cover art

Dignity

Seeking Respect in Back Row America

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Dignity

By: Chris Arnade
Narrated by: Donte Bonner
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About this listen

 "Candid, empathetic portraits of silenced men, women, and children." --Kirkus

Widely acclaimed photographer and writer Chris Arnade shines new light on America's poor, drug-addicted, and forgotten--both urban and rural, blue state and red state--and indicts the elitists who've left them behind.

Like Jacob Riis in the 1890s, Walker Evans in the 1930s, or Michael Harrington in the 1960s, Chris Arnade bares the reality of our current class divide in unforgettable true stories. Arnade's raw, deeply reported accounts cut through today's clickbait media headlines and indict the elitists who misunderstood poverty and addiction in America for decades.

After abandoning his Wall Street career, Arnade decided to document poverty and addiction in the Bronx. He began interviewing, photographing, and becoming close friends with homeless addicts, and spent hours in drug dens and McDonald's. Then he started driving across America to see how the rest of the country compared. He found the same types of stories everywhere, across lines of race, ethnicity, religion, and geography.

The people he got to know, from Alabama and California to Maine and Nevada, gave Arnade a new respect for the dignity and resilience of what he calls America's Back Row--those who lack the credentials and advantages of the so-called meritocratic upper class. The strivers in the Front Row, with their advanced degrees and upward mobility, see the Back Row's values as worthless. They scorn anyone who stays in a dying town or city as foolish, and mock anyone who clings to religion or tradition as naïve.

As Takeesha, a woman in the Bronx, told Arnade, she wants to be seen she sees herself: "a prostitute, a mother of six, and a child of God." This book is his attempt to help the rest of us truly see, hear, and respect millions of people who've been left behind. Photography Political Science Politics & Government Poverty & Homelessness Social Policy Social Sciences

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All stars
Most relevant
This moving book, detailing one man's realization that he did not understand the country in which he lived, is part of an increasing body of work detailing the growing dysfunction of American (and other Western) societies. But few will pay anything more than lip service to the insights revealed, for the simple reason that the credentialled elite have no interest in undermining their privileged position. That they will pay heavily for this in the end, as this and other studies imply, is small comfort.

No one will listen

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I enjoyed this book even without the pictures. It’s an honest exploration of the painful, complex situation of left behind places and finds in them community. Globalization, drug dealers and racism have been huge drains on the dignity of the “non-credentialed” and the closing lines of wanting to know poverty by looking at the statistics and of “you have your prejudices and I have mine” hit very close to home.

Honest exploration

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The print version includes the images constantly referenced in the narrative - the author references himself as a photographer constantly and talks about photographing the people discussed. They should have included the images that appear in the print version in a PDF download to accompany the audiobook.

Needs accompanying photographs in a PDF

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