7th May - Joel Budd, Underdogs

Wednesday 7th May, 7:30pm

Backstory, 71 Balham High Rd, SW12 9AP

The white working class, Economist journalist Joel Budd asserts, has been widely misunderstood. His book Underdogs seeks to look beyond stereotypes to analyse their social, cultural, and political impact.

About the book:

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.

Tickets Available:

Ticket only - £15 (This ticket does not include a copy of the book. You can decide to buy a copy on the night, but this will be charged in addition, at the full price of the book.)

Ticket & book  (RRP £20) - £25 (To collect on the night or in advance, after its publication date on 17th April.)