Running head: Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White Collar Dreams Critical Book Review 1

Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White Collar Dreams

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Critical Book Review

Presented to

Jennifer Saxton

Arkansas Tech University

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PS 4003

Capstone Project

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by

Gene White Jr.

T01193643

April 11, 2017

LIMBO: BLUE-COLLAR ROOTS, WHITE COLLAR DREAMS, CRITICAL BOOK REVIEW 2

Lubrano, A. (2004). Limbo: Blue-collar roots, white-collar dreams. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Introduction

In Limbo, journalist Alfred Lubrano examines "what people gain and what they leave

behind" as they move from America's working class to its middle class. Lubrano, a reporter for

the Philadelphia Inquirer and a commentator for National Public Radio, draws on more than 100

interviews in an attempt to understand the lives of former blue-collar kids-so called "straddlers"-

who have been assimilated into a white-collar world.

The author knows his subject intimately. When the blue-collar, Brooklyn-born Lubrano entered

Columbia University, his accent, complexion, clothes, and urban ethos were hopelessly "wrong."

His sense of limbo-an alienation from both his working-class roots and the white-collar, Ivy

League academy-soon intensified when his father, a master bricklayer, ended up working at

Columbia. In the evening, when father and son commuted home together, the only safe,

uncontentious topic of conversation was their mutual love for the New York Mets.

Although overt references to class are taboo, it nevertheless remains "script, map, and guide,"

writes Lubrano. Class "is nearly everything about you and it dictates what to expect out of life

and what the future should be." Lubrano is right-on when he asserts that although America sings

of equality-"the same chance to get ahead"-it is not true for the children of most blue-collar and

working-poor families.

Summary

Limbo is written to inform the reader of the mentality of the stradler. Out of the shadows

of the blood, sweat, and tears that cast upon the offspring of blue-collar workers. In this

literature, Lubrano gives the details of his own personal experience with this topic along with the
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accounts of others that were interviewed personally. The reader is taken on a journey through the

mind of the straddler in eight main sections. In the first section, Lubrano weaves a tale of the

clash of values that happens between blue-collar workers and their children who dont have the

same desire to achieve and perform the same career path as their parents. The next section

describes the pain of the transition from what the children of blue-collar workers or straddlers

have learned from little kids to a brave new white-collar world. The third section speaks on how

the college experience changes and affects the straddler. Later sections of the book go into how

these individuals react to first encounters with the upper class, relating to the parents after being

submersed into white-collar living and value thinking, and how they use what could be

considered the foundation of their spirit, the blue-collar mentality, to navigate office politics. The

last two sections of the book deal with main topics of life including; class, love, progeny, and the

never-ending struggle with who they are as a person.

Critical Evaluation

Lubrano's view of the challenges that upwardly mobile children of blue-collar families

face in establishing themselves in white-collar enclaves could spark lively debates among

Straddlers themselves, not to mention those Lubrano views as having a head start based on birth

into a white-collar family. In this combination of personal experience and research assessment,

Lubrano illustrates his freshman year at Columbia; where he expected classmates to regard him

as sophisticated because he was a New Yorker. However, this son of a Brooklyn bricklayer found

himself positioned on the outside of elite heavily populated by men characterized as "pasty,

slight fellas-all of them seemed 5-foot-7 and sandy-haired." This was only the beginning for

Lubrano, who came to see entry into a select educational institution as a harsh cultural dividing

line between his blue-collar upbringing and his white-collar future. Becoming a journalist
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seemed to have cost him emotionally from the feeling of being torn between abandoning

cherished values from his youth and accommodating his new profession's demands. Lubrano's

interviews with other Straddlers have convinced him that ambition puts many of them in

positions that are filled with similar ambivalence and unexpected culture shock. Lubrano

illustrates his thesis with quotes: "Limbo folk remain aware of their 'otherness' throughout their

lives [and remain] perpetual outsiders." Yet he's quick to recognize individual Straddlers who've

persevered in the face of those outsider feelings. Lubrano fails to share his own self-reflecting

concerning the issue however. The Straddlers' ultimate challenge, Lubrano claims, is to be as

steadfast and self-possessed in reconciling their white-collar present with their blue-collar

heritage as they have been in achieving their professional goals.

Lubranos purpose is share what the mentality of the straddler experiences as he make the

transition from blue to white collar thinking. The author is very biased in his opinion and the

research seems to be biased towards the thought that Lubrano makes in his conclusion. One of

the biggest strengths in the book is the fact that it is written from the point of view of exploration

from someone who actually experienced the thesis of the writing. In Limbo the author provides

and in-depth examination of people who have climbed from the poor or working classes into the

middle and upper classes, Lubrano attempts to knocks down one of the walls that keep the class

issue out of sight and earshot, and floods the subject with light. "This book," Lubrano writes, "is

a step toward understanding what people gain and what they leave behind as they move from the

working class to the middle class."

We already have an idea what they obtain nicer homes, cars and vacations, safer schools

for their kids, safer jobs for themselves. This book gives equal time to what they leave behind
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and the directness and authenticity of their hardworking relatives; the rough, honest humor of

their peers; a humility and a courage born of daily discomfort.

"Much about working-class life is admirable and fine," Lubrano writes. "The trick is to avoid

glorifying it without painting life in it too darkly. After the Straddlers have earned their degrees,

moved away from the familiar streets, and embarked on the types of careers their parents once

spoke about with envy or disdain, they face obstacle that are very similar to those faced by

immigrants to the land of plenty. Lubrano details those challenges in chapters on the workplace,

dating, marriage and child-rearing.

The weaknesses of this book are that the author writes the book from a one sided

perspective. As a result, this literature has its birth. It represents a stringing together of Lubrano's

and others' thoughts on the pain of straddling two different worlds. The narrative is full of broad

generalizations with little substantiation. These questions could be as it relates to Lubrano after

reading this work: What country Lubrano was born in? Aren't most Americans of a "hybrid

class"? Don't most parents aspire to have their children exceed their own station in life? And

where do the many numbers of unemployed graduates fit into the equation? The Georgetown

study found only 6.2 percent of all college graduates are unable to find full-time work, which is

less than half of the rate for high school graduates. Across the board, the level of education of

workers seems to be directly tied to the underemployment rate. (Carnevale & Smith, 2015)

Conclusion

This body of work, while an interesting read, should be taken with a grain of salt. In my

opinion the research is very biased and does not have enough substantiating evidence to prove

the writing complete. The author writes this work from a very biased perspective. I believe there

are other works on socioeconomics that do a better job of exploring the subject in a more
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scholarly fashion. Limbo is an entertaining read, however I am convinced that it stops at

entertainment. There are some very real topics and good points made by Lubrano however, a lot

is left to be desired.
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References

Carnevale, A. P., & Smith, N. (2015, November). Sharp declines in underemployment for

college graduates. Retrieved from https://cew.georgetown.edu/wp-

content/uploads/Underemployment-Declines.pdf

Lubrano, A. (2010). Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams. New York, NY:

John Wiley & Sons.