Underdogs

A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week

Underdogs is a compelling, myth-busting account of white working-class Britain.

''Few books bring so much fresh thinking to tired arguments'' - Robert Ford, author of Brexitland
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No large group of people in Britain is as badly misunderstood as the white working class. Its members have been caricatured as grumpy and backward-looking, as incorrigibly xenophobic, even racist – a tired and simplistic narrative perpetuated by commentators and the media. The truth is entirely different.

Thirty years ago, almost nobody talked about the white working class: in the House of Commons and the House of Lords the term had been used just three times in the previous two decades. Brexit helped to turn the group into a towering social and political force. But, in the aftermath, one-third of the population has been reduced to a cartoon. A shrewder analysis is badly needed. Underdogs provides it.

Veteran Economist journalist Joel Budd has spent years travelling around Britain, from Teesside to the Isle of Wight, south Wales to Lincolnshire. In Underdogs he offers a sharp corrective to the familiar stereotype of the white working class. It describes a hugely diverse group of people that is driving social and cultural change, not just grumbling about it.