Bestselling investigation into the myth and reality of working-class life in contemporary Britain
In modern Britain, the working class has become an object of fear and ridicule. From Little Britain’s Vicky Pollard to the demonization of Jade Goody, media and politicians alike dismiss as feckless, criminalized and ignorant a vast, underprivileged swathe of society whose members have become stereotyped by one, hate-filled word: chavs.
In this acclaimed investigation, Owen Jones explores how the working class has gone from “salt of the earth” to “scum of the earth.” Exposing the ignorance and prejudice at the heart of the chav caricature, he portrays a far more complex reality. The chav stereotype, he argues, is used by governments as a convenient fig leaf to avoid genuine engagement with social and economic problems and to justify widening inequality.
When Chavs was first published in 2011 it opened up the discussion of class in Britain. Then, in the public debate after the riots of that summer, Owen Jones’s thesis was proved right—the working class were the scapegoats for everything that was wrong with Britain.
This new edition includes a new chapter, reflecting on the overwhelming response to the book and the situation in Britain today.
About the Author
Owen Jones was a Victorian architect and designer who was very involved in The Great Exhibition of 1851 and the Crystal Palace as well as being very much a leading light in the design and art world of the time.
Industry Reviews
"A passionate and well-documented denunciation of the upper-class contempt for the proles that has recently become so visible in the British class system."
Eric Hobsbawm, Guardian
"A work of passion, sympathy and moral grace."
Dwight Garner, New York Times
"A bold attempt to rewind political orthodoxies; to reintroduce class as a political variable ... It moves in and out of postwar British history with great agility, weaving together complex questions of class, culture and identity with a lightness of touch. Jones torches the political class to great effect."
Jon Cruddas, Book of the Week, Independent
"It is a timely book. The white working class seems to be the one group in society that it is still acceptable to sneer at, ridicule, even incite hatred against ... Forensically ... Jones seeks to explain how, thanks to politics, the working class has shifted from being regarded as 'the salt of the earth to the scum of the earth.'"
Carol Midgley, Book of the Week, Times
