In this second edition, twenty-four college professors, with roots in the working class, discuss the experience of significant upward mobility and the problems of adjustment to life in the academy. This collection of stories provides revelations about the social class system and academic life in the United States.

This is a study of poverty in our cities--its causes, its composition, its dimensions, and its solutions. It is not a book which will please those who worship America's high standard of living. Nor will it please liberal reformers who say our social welfare policies have begun to eliminate the problem. (Indeed, it is suggested that urban poor exist in greater numbers and in greater misery than ever before, despite statistics to the contrary.) And it will not please radicals in search of support for abolition of the capitalist system because liberal reforms have failed in the past.