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Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back
Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award 2025, Long list
An eye-opening, urgent call to mend the broken relationship between college and non-college grads of all races that is driving politics to the far right in the US.
Is there a single change that could simultaneously protect democracy, spur progress on climate change, enact sane gun policies, and improve our response to the next pandemic? changing the class dynamics driving American politics.
The far right manipulates class anger to undercut progressive goals and liberals often inadvertently play into their hands. In Outclassed, Joan C. Williams explains how to reverse that process by bridging the “diploma divide”, while maintaining core progressive values. She offers college-educated Americans insights into how their values reflect their lives and their lives reflect their privilege. With illuminating stories —from the Portuguese admiral who led that country’s COVID response to the lawyer who led the ACLU’s gay marriage response (and more)— Williams demonstrates how working-class values reflect working-class lives. Then she explains how the far right connects culturally with the working-class, deftly manipulating racism and masculine anxieties to deflect attention from the ways far-right policies produce the economic conditions disadvantaging the working-class. Whether you are a concerned citizen committed to saving democracy or a politician or social justice warrior in need of messaging advice, Outclassed offers concrete guidance on how liberals can forge a multi-racial cross-class coalition capable of delivering on progressive goals.
An eye-opening, urgent call to mend the broken relationship between college and non-college grads of all races that is driving politics to the far right in the US.
Is there a single change that could simultaneously protect democracy, spur progress on climate change, enact sane gun policies, and improve our response to the next pandemic? changing the class dynamics driving American politics.
The far right manipulates class anger to undercut progressive goals and liberals often inadvertently play into their hands. In Outclassed, Joan C. Williams explains how to reverse that process by bridging the “diploma divide”, while maintaining core progressive values. She offers college-educated Americans insights into how their values reflect their lives and their lives reflect their privilege. With illuminating stories —from the Portuguese admiral who led that country’s COVID response to the lawyer who led the ACLU’s gay marriage response (and more)— Williams demonstrates how working-class values reflect working-class lives. Then she explains how the far right connects culturally with the working-class, deftly manipulating racism and masculine anxieties to deflect attention from the ways far-right policies produce the economic conditions disadvantaging the working-class. Whether you are a concerned citizen committed to saving democracy or a politician or social justice warrior in need of messaging advice, Outclassed offers concrete guidance on how liberals can forge a multi-racial cross-class coalition capable of delivering on progressive goals.
355 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 20, 2025
104 people are currently reading
4163 people want to read
About the author
Joan C. Williams
26 books83 followersProfessor Joan C. Williams is Distinguished Professor of Law, 1066 Foundation Chair, founding Director of the Center for WorkLife Law at University of California, Hastings College of the Law, and Co-Director of the Project on Attorney Retention (PAR).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
April 6, 2025
Finished Reading
Pre-Read notes
I read a lot about social issues, but not often about class. I am.looking forward to gaining some perspective of this issue from reading Outclassed. Initial impressions: I'm interested in what is being said, and it's just as political as I suppose it must be.
Final Review
People can’t get or stay married because it takes so much effort to survive. My ex-fiancée said, “You’re never around.” But I was working to get a better life for us. No one has time for their kids. It’s the American Nightmare. p81
Review summary and recommendations
I think this book was an ambitious project for Joan C. Williams, and an important one. I took several issues with her execution of her concept, but I still think this one offers value to readers who are already fluent in the subject. She presents a great deal of data, like statistics, but she tending to sort of stack these facts down the page without much discussion of how they relate to each other, or her larger point.
I recommend this book to readers who are interested in human rights and class differences. For another great read on human rights, try Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, and for a great book on class, try Caste.
Reading Notes
Two things I loved:
1. “The reason voters don’t vote based on economics is that they absolutely don’t believe that either Democrats or Republicans will ever deliver for them,” pollster David Mermin remarked to me in 2023. p19 This is the only explanation for this phenomena that I've heard that makes sense. Why do voters always vote against their interests? Because they don't trust the system itself.
2. I like the recaps at the end of each chapter, both in content and structure.
Three quibbles:
(This section isn't only for criticisms. It's also for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.)
1. Lots of stats and data in this one, which can either slow down the pace or de-center the author's thesis. In this case it's not always clear how the author is using the material she is quoting or paraphrasing. *edit This data is so fascinating, I really wish it was tied together and all the way through the book.
2. She sort of writes for an academic audience, which makes sense, but she's purportedly writing for a popular audience. And I don't think she's going to get them with the way she approaches the data. It's a little cold-blooded: Political scientists find that people with higher levels of education tend to have more consistent policy views and that policy influences their votes more than those with lower levels of education. So if you want to send the message that you only care about the one-third of Americans with college degrees, definitely keep talking on and on about policy. p220
3. These approaches all had one feature in common: they use psychology to [make it] unnecessary for liberals to take conservative ideas seriously because these ideas are caused by bad childhoods or ugly personality traits. I [have] suggested a very different approach : start by assuming that conservatives are just as sincere as liberals. p252 I assure Ms. Williams and anyone else who might be wondering that mentally disabled people are still very capable of sincerity about their personal politics. So if we are brushed aside in any way *because* of our mental health, that is some ableist 💩 [poo] right there.
Rating: 💰💰💰 /5 money bags
Recommend? yes, for the right reader
Finished: Apr 4 '25
Format: accessible digital arc, NetGalley
Read this book if you like:
📰 nonfiction
📊 statistics and facts
🤝 books about human rights
Thank you to the author Joan C. Williams, publishers St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for an accessible advance digital copy of OUTCLASSED. All views are mine.
---------------
Pre-Read notes
I read a lot about social issues, but not often about class. I am.looking forward to gaining some perspective of this issue from reading Outclassed. Initial impressions: I'm interested in what is being said, and it's just as political as I suppose it must be.
Final Review
People can’t get or stay married because it takes so much effort to survive. My ex-fiancée said, “You’re never around.” But I was working to get a better life for us. No one has time for their kids. It’s the American Nightmare. p81
Review summary and recommendations
I think this book was an ambitious project for Joan C. Williams, and an important one. I took several issues with her execution of her concept, but I still think this one offers value to readers who are already fluent in the subject. She presents a great deal of data, like statistics, but she tending to sort of stack these facts down the page without much discussion of how they relate to each other, or her larger point.
I recommend this book to readers who are interested in human rights and class differences. For another great read on human rights, try Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, and for a great book on class, try Caste.
Reading Notes
Two things I loved:
1. “The reason voters don’t vote based on economics is that they absolutely don’t believe that either Democrats or Republicans will ever deliver for them,” pollster David Mermin remarked to me in 2023. p19 This is the only explanation for this phenomena that I've heard that makes sense. Why do voters always vote against their interests? Because they don't trust the system itself.
2. I like the recaps at the end of each chapter, both in content and structure.
Three quibbles:
(This section isn't only for criticisms. It's also for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.)
1. Lots of stats and data in this one, which can either slow down the pace or de-center the author's thesis. In this case it's not always clear how the author is using the material she is quoting or paraphrasing. *edit This data is so fascinating, I really wish it was tied together and all the way through the book.
2. She sort of writes for an academic audience, which makes sense, but she's purportedly writing for a popular audience. And I don't think she's going to get them with the way she approaches the data. It's a little cold-blooded: Political scientists find that people with higher levels of education tend to have more consistent policy views and that policy influences their votes more than those with lower levels of education. So if you want to send the message that you only care about the one-third of Americans with college degrees, definitely keep talking on and on about policy. p220
3. These approaches all had one feature in common: they use psychology to [make it] unnecessary for liberals to take conservative ideas seriously because these ideas are caused by bad childhoods or ugly personality traits. I [have] suggested a very different approach : start by assuming that conservatives are just as sincere as liberals. p252 I assure Ms. Williams and anyone else who might be wondering that mentally disabled people are still very capable of sincerity about their personal politics. So if we are brushed aside in any way *because* of our mental health, that is some ableist 💩 [poo] right there.
Rating: 💰💰💰 /5 money bags
Recommend? yes, for the right reader
Finished: Apr 4 '25
Format: accessible digital arc, NetGalley
Read this book if you like:
📰 nonfiction
📊 statistics and facts
🤝 books about human rights
Thank you to the author Joan C. Williams, publishers St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for an accessible advance digital copy of OUTCLASSED. All views are mine.
---------------
June 26, 2025
Man, so many people need to read this, especially those on the left.
April 20, 2025
Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back
By Joan Williams – Release Date: May 20, 2025
This academic book explores the growing political divide in America—and how the Left has steadily lost working-class voters. Williams highlights that in 1996, 59% of non-college whites identified as Democrats; today, only about a quarter do. She argues that globalization gutted middle-class prospects, and that many lower-middle-class voters see themselves as “pre-rich,” not as workers—fueling votes that seem misaligned with their economic interests.
A key takeaway: MAGA appeals to those who feel both parties have failed to address the collapse of the American middle class. Economic opportunity is now highly concentrated in a few cities, unlike in past decades when places like Pittsburgh and North Carolina thrived.
Williams calls for a bold rural platform focused on better jobs, higher wages, and regional investment. To win back these voters, the Left must show respect—and fight inequality between regions, not just individuals.
It’s dense but thought-provoking and packed with data. Highly recommend for the right reader!
Thank you to the author Joan C. Williams, publishers St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for an accessible advance digital copy of OUTCLASSED.
By Joan Williams – Release Date: May 20, 2025
This academic book explores the growing political divide in America—and how the Left has steadily lost working-class voters. Williams highlights that in 1996, 59% of non-college whites identified as Democrats; today, only about a quarter do. She argues that globalization gutted middle-class prospects, and that many lower-middle-class voters see themselves as “pre-rich,” not as workers—fueling votes that seem misaligned with their economic interests.
A key takeaway: MAGA appeals to those who feel both parties have failed to address the collapse of the American middle class. Economic opportunity is now highly concentrated in a few cities, unlike in past decades when places like Pittsburgh and North Carolina thrived.
Williams calls for a bold rural platform focused on better jobs, higher wages, and regional investment. To win back these voters, the Left must show respect—and fight inequality between regions, not just individuals.
It’s dense but thought-provoking and packed with data. Highly recommend for the right reader!
Thank you to the author Joan C. Williams, publishers St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for an accessible advance digital copy of OUTCLASSED.
May 5, 2025
Honestly I was surprised to see the heavily negative reviews for this book when I finished because I very much liked it. I have already used information I have learned from this in conversations I've had about politics and why we are where we're at today. I already inherently agreed with Williams' thesis that Democrats need to get back to representing the people and not just academic elites, so I guess that could have biased me. This book is also severely information heavy - I enjoyed that, myself. I think this book was, honestly, written for people who are actually working in politics, rather than the average reader. The audio format of this was well done and made the info-dumping easier to digest.
Thank you to Macmillan Audio for an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to Macmillan Audio for an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
October 19, 2025
This book is worth a read in many regards but it's important to note, that it's not really about "how to win the working class back" or "a new relationship between the working class and the brahmin left" as stated by the author. This would entail talking about a new relationship between political parties and trade unions, about challenging institutions within parties that have excluded working class people and their interests, and it would mean to develop policies specifically tailored to empower working class communities at the expense of capital.
This book touches on none of that. Rather it aims at being a manual for liberal activists on how to get working class votes or win working class support for political campaigns with liberal issues. Here it effectively raises awareness of how our values are structured by class experience. A fact to which university educated liberals have remained stubbornly blind. Williams also collected a significant amount of data which surely undermines a number of false assumptions that especially US liberals are likely to make.
Unfortunately the book only offers a very vague notion of who the working class actually is supposed to be. It's about who went to university and who hasn't, though it also includes nurses who in the US do have a college degree. It's sort of about wage labourers but strangely it also includes farmers, small-business owners and self-employed people because workers supposedly identify with them (whatever that category is supposed to explain in terms of charting out class relations). Things are further confused by the author's very American equation of the term middle class with working class, which is supposed to denote a middle income bracket between the poor and the professionals, who have somehow managed to land at the top of Williams' class pyramid. It appears that working class people are those who haven't gone to university, vaguely feel working class and hold more or less conservative values.
That doesn't mean the book offers no helpful advice to left-wing activists on how to engage with class issues but it limits its capacity for understanding class conflict in modern capitalism and developing strategies to regain lost ground.
This book touches on none of that. Rather it aims at being a manual for liberal activists on how to get working class votes or win working class support for political campaigns with liberal issues. Here it effectively raises awareness of how our values are structured by class experience. A fact to which university educated liberals have remained stubbornly blind. Williams also collected a significant amount of data which surely undermines a number of false assumptions that especially US liberals are likely to make.
Unfortunately the book only offers a very vague notion of who the working class actually is supposed to be. It's about who went to university and who hasn't, though it also includes nurses who in the US do have a college degree. It's sort of about wage labourers but strangely it also includes farmers, small-business owners and self-employed people because workers supposedly identify with them (whatever that category is supposed to explain in terms of charting out class relations). Things are further confused by the author's very American equation of the term middle class with working class, which is supposed to denote a middle income bracket between the poor and the professionals, who have somehow managed to land at the top of Williams' class pyramid. It appears that working class people are those who haven't gone to university, vaguely feel working class and hold more or less conservative values.
That doesn't mean the book offers no helpful advice to left-wing activists on how to engage with class issues but it limits its capacity for understanding class conflict in modern capitalism and developing strategies to regain lost ground.
May 31, 2025
If you are like me, railing for decades at the failings of the “Left” (and the party in the US that has failed it), you might have turned to whatever literature is out there to try to understand why they fail, and more to the point, if there is any way back, how. I thank NetGalley and T. Martin’s press for giving me access to an advance review copy (even though it was published not long after I got it!) This book posits a lot of the "whys", and proposes some possible courses of action. BLUF*: I am not convinced these can overcome the big obstacles, the entrenched Ailes network fanbase, the social media blitz lock on such a big percentage of the US electorate.
BLUF #2 "The Left needs to stop falling into the rhetorical traps set by the Far Right." This is the biggest understatement of this book. Buried in a Key Takeaway of Chapter 20. (BTW, each chapter has 3-4 of those key takeaways, but they won't really help the TLDR sector.)
While I try to keep up with what is happening in Europe, what is happening in the US takes up a lot of my bandwidth so my observations are colored by that. Professor Williams did a huge amount of research - there are 676 ennumerated Notes but almost all of them have multiple many citations and sources. If you like data and statistics, you won't be disappointed reading this. It can be academic at times. And it is an ambitious project. "You don't need me to tell you what's wrong with the racist, anti-immigrant, anti-science politics of the Far Right. Instead, I want to explain how class blindness on the Left helps the Right."
So this is all about class division. And populism. And understanding what drives them. And reforming connections.
"In fact, far-right populism has three elements: anger against elites, an insistence on giving power back to the 'common people,' and defining that in-group ('common people') in reference to one or more undeserving out-groups who supposedly have been favored by elites."
{Key there is out-groups perceived as - true or not - favorites of elites.}
As to the populist movement: "If democracy hasn't worked for you and your kind for over forty years, you might think it's time to try something different." Like dictatorship?
And connections: "Because here's the brutal fact: if we don't tap into people's cherished identities - including class-based masculinities-we know who will."
Not everything cues the skeptic in me. "No one can get everything they want not because the other side is evil but, because the other side is different. That's the path past populism." I like that, and...
"The key for progressives is to express respect for small businesses and hard work and to stress government's important role in ensuring that hard work leads to a stable, middle-class life."
And...
"We're going to talk about what people will listen to," [Ted Kennedy] said once. "You have to get them listening by talking about what they're interested in, before you can start trying to persuade them about other matters."
But...
"The race-class narrative reclaims anti-elitism for the Left, contesting the Far Right's harnessing of anti-elitism into anger against political and cultural elites, and redirecting that anger against the Merchant Right. That in itself is a huge contribution."
Is it enough?
"Liberals are less than half as likely as conservatives to connect their arguments with their audiences' values."
I get this, but when they switch up the message, won't the "non-elites" then cry that they're pandering? The wrong wing is very organized and skilled at word twists. They'll play that scenario to death.
On bridging the divide:
"One strategy [connecting with non-college voters] is to point out how Republicans use culture wars to distract attention from economic inequality.
[...]
A second strategy is to adopt blue-collar talk traditions.
[...]
The Far Right has put a lot of time and effort into connecting with noncollege grads. The rest of us need to learn how."
Okay, but how do you change the minds of those voting far not-left to voting not not-left? Especially when faced with this, the epigram for Chapter 6 quotes Reece Peck :"[The Far Right] foregrounds real class cultural inequalities in order to obscure real economic ones." And
"Conservatives have deftly manipulated Missing Middle voters' worship of perseverance and hard work into the politics of resentment. From the 1970s into the 1990s, the chief trope was the racist story of lazy, entitled people of color collecting welfare. The new millennium substituted another villain: lazy, entitled government workers, with their fat pensions and cushy desk jobs."
The ideas put forward here seem like ideals to me. I'm too pessimistic - 40 years of disillusion - to see them working. And my observation of the US 2024 election, Harris and Walz said most of the right things according to what this book tells us needs to be said to sway the “non-elites”. But that didn’t work and won't work until the non-non-elites figure out a way to diminish the not-left wing message. (Yeah, I don't like "Left/Right", "liberal/conservative" labels.)
*BLUF - Bottom Line Up Front (military term... in case the boss is impatient, doesn't have much time, doesn't care about the background)
Way too many notes of my own. Here are a selected few:
One chapter title is "Reframe the Immigration Debate to Tap Working-Class Values". Oh boy. It's not a "debate" anymore.
"Immigration fits beautifully into the politics of distraction."
"Activists' Language Can Feel Unpersuasive at Best and Insulting at Worst"
{ Nailed it.}
"After the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution mandated states to recognize gay marriage, the Right did what the Left too rarely does. 'We knew we needed to find an issue that the candidates were comfortable talking about. And we threw everything at the wall,' said Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, a conservative advocacy group. 'What has stuck is the issue of trans identity, particularly among young people.'"
{Damning on both the "too rarely does" and the anti-something targeted attacks by the "conservatives."}
"The key is to connect immigrants with working-class values, as did an lowa billboard that depicted an extended Latino family of grandparents, parents, and four children, including a baby, at a family occasion (perhaps the baby's baptism), with the caption, 'Welcome the Immigrant You Once Were.' 'The subtext was clear: today's immigrants are no different from your family members who traveled by train and wagon to build a life in the prairie a hundred years ago. Hardworking, religious, and devoted to family, they share your values.' [Jonathon] Haidt again."
{Pessimist in me ... again... the not-Left will dismiss that message thanks to the overpowering message of who they actually follow.}
"Noncollege grads also are more conservative on LGBTQ rights. A 2022 poll found that nearly half of Americans with high school or less but only about a quarter of those with grad school opposed gay marriage. As someone who has worked for gender equality my entire life, I don't intend to abandon that quest.
But to pursue it effectively, you need to understand how deeply class inflected the family-values debate is. If liberals are going to bridge the diploma divide, we need to take that as a starting point."
{"Conservative"? I really dislike that word as collective adjective when opposing human rights is considered "conservative".}.
"'What you can earn depends on what you can learn,' said Bill Clinton more than thirty times during his presidency. 'If you don't have a good education,' said Obama during his presidency, 'then it's going to be hard for you to find a job that pays a living wage.' In a shocking expression of liberals' inclination to consign anyone who did not attend college to dead-end, low-paid jobs."
{I'm going to need context for Clinton because there are many many blue-collar jobs that require the employee to "learn" how to do the job well. And the Obama quote does not exclude blue collar jobs...just "living wage" jobs.}
"To elites, work offers honor. Non-elites prefer to hang out with people who understand that they're not just the toilet guy. My brother-in-law still hangs out in the same bar, with the same friends he went to high school with. When we happened into it one evening, we recognized a depth and density of social bonds that was lacking in our lives."
{Reductive. It doesn't have to be that way... you can have friends and not have the need to spend all your time with them. That doesn't mean anything is lacking.}
"The path forward is to link the economic woes of the Missing Middle with those of younger college-educated voters struggling to buy houses, afford childcare, and find good, stable jobs."
{I don't think linking will work. But. the Dems do need to appeal to the jobs part.}
"These revolts [rural and Rust Belt counties voting for 45] highlight that neoliberalism fueled not just inequality between individuals but also inequality between regions."
{Regional identity is important to many people.}
"This happened in the UK and US because both have winner-take-all legislative districts defined by geography, which gives rural areas disproportionate power-unlike in democracies where winners are chosen proportionally."
{And this will not change because it does not benefit the not-left wing. They are in fact making it worse.}
"Not surprisingly, Haney López's research found that formulations like 'wealthy special interests who rig the rules' and 'the greedy few' polled better than phrases like 'the wealthy few.'
{"Polled better"... but polls were wrong. Again.}
"'If you get your jollies or you get your voters excited by bullying gay and trans kids, you know, it's time for a new line of work,' said John Fetterman in a campaign stop: notice how he flips the 'leftists aren't doing right by kids' into 'right-wing bullies are cruel to kids.'"
{That worked once. The not-Left is thriving on cruelty now.}
"Some of the ways Obama chose would not be my ways: defending coal and what sounded like a sweeping defense of 'Second Amendment rights.' But he understood that part of American politics was working hard to connect to decent people living in a parallel universe."
{That's a difference between "us and them": I didn't support - or excuse, ignore - all of what Obama, Clinton, did. But the non-elites sure do dismiss and ignore, if not embrace the bad character of 45/47.}
"Conservatives have deftly manipulated Missing Middle voters' worship of perseverance and hard work into the politics of resentment. From the 1970s into the 1990s, the chief trope was the racist story of lazy, entitled people of color collecting welfare. The new millennium substituted another villain: lazy, entitled government workers, with their fat pensions and cushy desk jobs."
BLUF #2 "The Left needs to stop falling into the rhetorical traps set by the Far Right." This is the biggest understatement of this book. Buried in a Key Takeaway of Chapter 20. (BTW, each chapter has 3-4 of those key takeaways, but they won't really help the TLDR sector.)
While I try to keep up with what is happening in Europe, what is happening in the US takes up a lot of my bandwidth so my observations are colored by that. Professor Williams did a huge amount of research - there are 676 ennumerated Notes but almost all of them have multiple many citations and sources. If you like data and statistics, you won't be disappointed reading this. It can be academic at times. And it is an ambitious project. "You don't need me to tell you what's wrong with the racist, anti-immigrant, anti-science politics of the Far Right. Instead, I want to explain how class blindness on the Left helps the Right."
So this is all about class division. And populism. And understanding what drives them. And reforming connections.
"In fact, far-right populism has three elements: anger against elites, an insistence on giving power back to the 'common people,' and defining that in-group ('common people') in reference to one or more undeserving out-groups who supposedly have been favored by elites."
{Key there is out-groups perceived as - true or not - favorites of elites.}
As to the populist movement: "If democracy hasn't worked for you and your kind for over forty years, you might think it's time to try something different." Like dictatorship?
And connections: "Because here's the brutal fact: if we don't tap into people's cherished identities - including class-based masculinities-we know who will."
Not everything cues the skeptic in me. "No one can get everything they want not because the other side is evil but, because the other side is different. That's the path past populism." I like that, and...
"The key for progressives is to express respect for small businesses and hard work and to stress government's important role in ensuring that hard work leads to a stable, middle-class life."
And...
"We're going to talk about what people will listen to," [Ted Kennedy] said once. "You have to get them listening by talking about what they're interested in, before you can start trying to persuade them about other matters."
But...
"The race-class narrative reclaims anti-elitism for the Left, contesting the Far Right's harnessing of anti-elitism into anger against political and cultural elites, and redirecting that anger against the Merchant Right. That in itself is a huge contribution."
Is it enough?
"Liberals are less than half as likely as conservatives to connect their arguments with their audiences' values."
I get this, but when they switch up the message, won't the "non-elites" then cry that they're pandering? The wrong wing is very organized and skilled at word twists. They'll play that scenario to death.
On bridging the divide:
"One strategy [connecting with non-college voters] is to point out how Republicans use culture wars to distract attention from economic inequality.
[...]
A second strategy is to adopt blue-collar talk traditions.
[...]
The Far Right has put a lot of time and effort into connecting with noncollege grads. The rest of us need to learn how."
Okay, but how do you change the minds of those voting far not-left to voting not not-left? Especially when faced with this, the epigram for Chapter 6 quotes Reece Peck :"[The Far Right] foregrounds real class cultural inequalities in order to obscure real economic ones." And
"Conservatives have deftly manipulated Missing Middle voters' worship of perseverance and hard work into the politics of resentment. From the 1970s into the 1990s, the chief trope was the racist story of lazy, entitled people of color collecting welfare. The new millennium substituted another villain: lazy, entitled government workers, with their fat pensions and cushy desk jobs."
The ideas put forward here seem like ideals to me. I'm too pessimistic - 40 years of disillusion - to see them working. And my observation of the US 2024 election, Harris and Walz said most of the right things according to what this book tells us needs to be said to sway the “non-elites”. But that didn’t work and won't work until the non-non-elites figure out a way to diminish the not-left wing message. (Yeah, I don't like "Left/Right", "liberal/conservative" labels.)
*BLUF - Bottom Line Up Front (military term... in case the boss is impatient, doesn't have much time, doesn't care about the background)
Way too many notes of my own. Here are a selected few:
One chapter title is "Reframe the Immigration Debate to Tap Working-Class Values". Oh boy. It's not a "debate" anymore.
"Immigration fits beautifully into the politics of distraction."
"Activists' Language Can Feel Unpersuasive at Best and Insulting at Worst"
{ Nailed it.}
"After the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution mandated states to recognize gay marriage, the Right did what the Left too rarely does. 'We knew we needed to find an issue that the candidates were comfortable talking about. And we threw everything at the wall,' said Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, a conservative advocacy group. 'What has stuck is the issue of trans identity, particularly among young people.'"
{Damning on both the "too rarely does" and the anti-something targeted attacks by the "conservatives."}
"The key is to connect immigrants with working-class values, as did an lowa billboard that depicted an extended Latino family of grandparents, parents, and four children, including a baby, at a family occasion (perhaps the baby's baptism), with the caption, 'Welcome the Immigrant You Once Were.' 'The subtext was clear: today's immigrants are no different from your family members who traveled by train and wagon to build a life in the prairie a hundred years ago. Hardworking, religious, and devoted to family, they share your values.' [Jonathon] Haidt again."
{Pessimist in me ... again... the not-Left will dismiss that message thanks to the overpowering message of who they actually follow.}
"Noncollege grads also are more conservative on LGBTQ rights. A 2022 poll found that nearly half of Americans with high school or less but only about a quarter of those with grad school opposed gay marriage. As someone who has worked for gender equality my entire life, I don't intend to abandon that quest.
But to pursue it effectively, you need to understand how deeply class inflected the family-values debate is. If liberals are going to bridge the diploma divide, we need to take that as a starting point."
{"Conservative"? I really dislike that word as collective adjective when opposing human rights is considered "conservative".}.
"'What you can earn depends on what you can learn,' said Bill Clinton more than thirty times during his presidency. 'If you don't have a good education,' said Obama during his presidency, 'then it's going to be hard for you to find a job that pays a living wage.' In a shocking expression of liberals' inclination to consign anyone who did not attend college to dead-end, low-paid jobs."
{I'm going to need context for Clinton because there are many many blue-collar jobs that require the employee to "learn" how to do the job well. And the Obama quote does not exclude blue collar jobs...just "living wage" jobs.}
"To elites, work offers honor. Non-elites prefer to hang out with people who understand that they're not just the toilet guy. My brother-in-law still hangs out in the same bar, with the same friends he went to high school with. When we happened into it one evening, we recognized a depth and density of social bonds that was lacking in our lives."
{Reductive. It doesn't have to be that way... you can have friends and not have the need to spend all your time with them. That doesn't mean anything is lacking.}
"The path forward is to link the economic woes of the Missing Middle with those of younger college-educated voters struggling to buy houses, afford childcare, and find good, stable jobs."
{I don't think linking will work. But. the Dems do need to appeal to the jobs part.}
"These revolts [rural and Rust Belt counties voting for 45] highlight that neoliberalism fueled not just inequality between individuals but also inequality between regions."
{Regional identity is important to many people.}
"This happened in the UK and US because both have winner-take-all legislative districts defined by geography, which gives rural areas disproportionate power-unlike in democracies where winners are chosen proportionally."
{And this will not change because it does not benefit the not-left wing. They are in fact making it worse.}
"Not surprisingly, Haney López's research found that formulations like 'wealthy special interests who rig the rules' and 'the greedy few' polled better than phrases like 'the wealthy few.'
{"Polled better"... but polls were wrong. Again.}
"'If you get your jollies or you get your voters excited by bullying gay and trans kids, you know, it's time for a new line of work,' said John Fetterman in a campaign stop: notice how he flips the 'leftists aren't doing right by kids' into 'right-wing bullies are cruel to kids.'"
{That worked once. The not-Left is thriving on cruelty now.}
"Some of the ways Obama chose would not be my ways: defending coal and what sounded like a sweeping defense of 'Second Amendment rights.' But he understood that part of American politics was working hard to connect to decent people living in a parallel universe."
{That's a difference between "us and them": I didn't support - or excuse, ignore - all of what Obama, Clinton, did. But the non-elites sure do dismiss and ignore, if not embrace the bad character of 45/47.}
"Conservatives have deftly manipulated Missing Middle voters' worship of perseverance and hard work into the politics of resentment. From the 1970s into the 1990s, the chief trope was the racist story of lazy, entitled people of color collecting welfare. The new millennium substituted another villain: lazy, entitled government workers, with their fat pensions and cushy desk jobs."
August 21, 2025
The book looks to identify failures in the Democratic party at reaching a broad level of support among mostly white, mostly rural, and mostly uneducated voters. For too long Democrats are only paying lip-service when they aim to draw ire on the wealthy and elites, which makes sense given the donor class of Democrats tend to be economic elites themselves. Further this book exposes, the most passionate and active democrats tend to be relatively homogeneous and have defend initiatives that most Americans actually oppose. Within this book are several illustrations of how Democrats are missing out on reaching large parts of the country by failing to meet the general publics' desire to see an increase work opportunities for the lower middle class which primarily is white, has no college education, and tends to support conservative values like religion, a difference between genders, and hard work (even though 30 years ago these were not political issues). Williams' advocates making increased labor opportunities a central tenet of any future liberal platform, and then packaging class discontent but not other culture wars issues into the fold. I think it is a great read as it is eye-opening to the many liberal hypocrisies that conservatives continue to capitalize on without fail.
September 22, 2025
If you view politics as about getting shit done, compromises are part of this.
"Outclassed" is focused on US politics, and it's not a perfect book. Yet, I liked it overall, and it's a book that I wish some politicians in Lithuania would read.
"Outclassed" is focused on US politics, and it's not a perfect book. Yet, I liked it overall, and it's a book that I wish some politicians in Lithuania would read.
April 27, 2025
Very informative, research packed book. I learned a lot from the information but felt powerless to enact any noticeable change. I hope the right people read this book so future elections can be positively affected. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of audiobook!
May 20, 2025
Very detailed book, eye-opening and important, specially for the times we are living in now. Informative and an important tool for understanding and educational purposes.
January 14, 2025
You can also see this review, along with others I have written, at Mr. Book's Book Reviews.
Thank you, St. Martin’s Press, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Mr. Book just finished Outclassed: How The Left Lost The Working Class And How To Win Them Back, by Joan C. Williams.
This book will be released on May 20, 2025.
This book is filled with attempts at arguments on how the left could win back the working class. However, I did not find this author to be very powerful or persuasive in her arguments. The book also was not that interesting and it was often a chore to keep going on to the next chapter. Unfortunately, this one had the feel of a series of boring college lectures.
I give this book a C.
Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, a C equates to 2 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).
This review has been posted at NetGalley, Goodreads and Mr. Book’s Book Reviews
Mr. Book finished reading this on January 14, 2025.
Thank you, St. Martin’s Press, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Mr. Book just finished Outclassed: How The Left Lost The Working Class And How To Win Them Back, by Joan C. Williams.
This book will be released on May 20, 2025.
This book is filled with attempts at arguments on how the left could win back the working class. However, I did not find this author to be very powerful or persuasive in her arguments. The book also was not that interesting and it was often a chore to keep going on to the next chapter. Unfortunately, this one had the feel of a series of boring college lectures.
I give this book a C.
Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, a C equates to 2 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).
This review has been posted at NetGalley, Goodreads and Mr. Book’s Book Reviews
Mr. Book finished reading this on January 14, 2025.
June 11, 2025
required reading for liberals hoping to win elections
Williams does a great job of explaining to college grads what the other two-thirds of Americans believe. Liberals are supposed to be smart but that isn’t apparent from their rhetoric, which alienates many non-college grads. As she writes, “Elites are worrying about the end of the world. We are worrying about the end of the month.”
Williams does a great job of explaining to college grads what the other two-thirds of Americans believe. Liberals are supposed to be smart but that isn’t apparent from their rhetoric, which alienates many non-college grads. As she writes, “Elites are worrying about the end of the world. We are worrying about the end of the month.”
September 19, 2025
This is one of the most important political books of this decade if not of several decades. As somebody who’s lived in Maine’s second district for 35 years, a district that voted for Trump three times in a row, I read this book and think, finally, somebody gets it. Joan Williams’s book is amazing.
Within 5 minutes of starting on Audible, I bought the hard cover so I could reread it and underline passages. I’ve since listened to it twice (powerfully narrated by K. Potter), and underlined it from cover to cover (including some of the notes).
Regardless of whether you are into politics, this book stands as a terrific example of how to make an argument with tons of data by organizing them to support a central point. (In this case, it’s “message to liberals is that we will lose elections, or scrape by so narrowly we can’t implement progressive changes, unless we can secure more votes from these middle status voters in routine jobs feeling left behind. So if you care about climate change or abortion rights or defending democracy, you need to care about these lower-middle-class voters.”)
Here’s an example of deploying data in service of her argument. One of my favorite data points from the trove of gems throughout the book is: “Virtually all Americans (90 percent) did better than their parents in the decades after World War II, but only half of those born in 1980 will, with particularly sharp declines in the South and industrial Midwest.” Then she delivers unvarnished analysis: “No wonder people are pissed.”
Twenty-five chapters are organized into four logical sections, where each chapter ends with a set of numbered takeaways, reinforcing the central points that the quotes and analyses support. The argument is complex, but she makes it easy to grasp.
To top it off, the author goes to great lengths to describe the counterarguments before taking them down. One favorite of mine is her exposition of the argument that Trump voters care little about economics and instead are mostly motivated by racism and/or are upset about their loss of status. Racism and status are issues, to be sure. Trump is a master of dog whistle politics and outright racism. But Democrats often point to the racism and status factors to dismiss class as an issue. (Getting this right is important because allegations that Trump voters are all racists inflames them to no end, thereby deepening divisions.) Williams explains how racism and the drop in status became predominant explanations for why voters back Trump. Then she demolishes the arguments in favor of her understanding of class.
Her argument is also nuanced; rather than offer a simple view that our divisions are only about economics, the author examines the interplay between economic issues and the culture wars concerning immigration, the pandemic, climate change, and others.
The book should be widely used as a text in courses on writing and research. But more importantly, it should be read by everyone who cares about our deep divisions and is seeking ways to heal them. We can only succeed with a thorough grasp of the understanding Williams provides.
Within 5 minutes of starting on Audible, I bought the hard cover so I could reread it and underline passages. I’ve since listened to it twice (powerfully narrated by K. Potter), and underlined it from cover to cover (including some of the notes).
Regardless of whether you are into politics, this book stands as a terrific example of how to make an argument with tons of data by organizing them to support a central point. (In this case, it’s “message to liberals is that we will lose elections, or scrape by so narrowly we can’t implement progressive changes, unless we can secure more votes from these middle status voters in routine jobs feeling left behind. So if you care about climate change or abortion rights or defending democracy, you need to care about these lower-middle-class voters.”)
Here’s an example of deploying data in service of her argument. One of my favorite data points from the trove of gems throughout the book is: “Virtually all Americans (90 percent) did better than their parents in the decades after World War II, but only half of those born in 1980 will, with particularly sharp declines in the South and industrial Midwest.” Then she delivers unvarnished analysis: “No wonder people are pissed.”
Twenty-five chapters are organized into four logical sections, where each chapter ends with a set of numbered takeaways, reinforcing the central points that the quotes and analyses support. The argument is complex, but she makes it easy to grasp.
To top it off, the author goes to great lengths to describe the counterarguments before taking them down. One favorite of mine is her exposition of the argument that Trump voters care little about economics and instead are mostly motivated by racism and/or are upset about their loss of status. Racism and status are issues, to be sure. Trump is a master of dog whistle politics and outright racism. But Democrats often point to the racism and status factors to dismiss class as an issue. (Getting this right is important because allegations that Trump voters are all racists inflames them to no end, thereby deepening divisions.) Williams explains how racism and the drop in status became predominant explanations for why voters back Trump. Then she demolishes the arguments in favor of her understanding of class.
Her argument is also nuanced; rather than offer a simple view that our divisions are only about economics, the author examines the interplay between economic issues and the culture wars concerning immigration, the pandemic, climate change, and others.
The book should be widely used as a text in courses on writing and research. But more importantly, it should be read by everyone who cares about our deep divisions and is seeking ways to heal them. We can only succeed with a thorough grasp of the understanding Williams provides.
April 26, 2025
#Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back integrates research, anecdotes, and frankly a bit of pluck to describe how the far right has strategically taken up the culture war. The book is timely as it is situated right after the results of the 2024 elections, including some of the results of the House and Senate races. This book is not written for the working class; it’s written for the college-educated progressives on one side of the “diploma divide.”
The author does a good job of providing some success stories, namely Democrats that won contentious or red-leaning working class elections (e.g. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, John Fetterman, and Gretchen Whitmer), and how some of these success stories might be replicated. A major example is how the country completely shifted on gay marriage in just a few decades. She weaves aspects of racism, sexism, religiosity, homophobia/heterosexism, even geography into a larger argument that socioeconomic status is the primary unifier amongst groups. I do think it’s a bit overly simplistic, particularly with how those intersectional identities both shape and have been shaped by socioeconomic status. The author doesn’t ignore these, but perhaps downsizes them to highlight her larger points. For what it’s worth, the author also acknowledges that this book is not going to help the Left win those who are entrenched in white nationalism, but rather those who are truly more middle ground (which in her view is the economically disadvantaged).
For a book about stats and political anecdotes, both the author and the narrator kept me engaged regardless of how much I agreed or disagreed, no easy feat in a nearly 400-page audiobook! Each chapter felt like listening to a podcast (truly mean that in the best way!) and call me a nerd but I loved the key points recap at the end of each chapter!
Do I think this is a singular solution to bridge the diploma divide? Absolutely not. But I do think it provides a few steps on that bridge, and certainly provides some insightful and compelling counterpoints to far right talking points.
This book may appeal to those who liked: NIckel and Dimed, Cost of Living, White Rural Rage
Reviewed as part of #ARC from #NetGalley. Many thanks to Macmillan Audio/St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review.
Disclosure: I listened to the audiobook and did not have access to the print version, so I have not (yet) reviewed the author’s sources.
The author does a good job of providing some success stories, namely Democrats that won contentious or red-leaning working class elections (e.g. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, John Fetterman, and Gretchen Whitmer), and how some of these success stories might be replicated. A major example is how the country completely shifted on gay marriage in just a few decades. She weaves aspects of racism, sexism, religiosity, homophobia/heterosexism, even geography into a larger argument that socioeconomic status is the primary unifier amongst groups. I do think it’s a bit overly simplistic, particularly with how those intersectional identities both shape and have been shaped by socioeconomic status. The author doesn’t ignore these, but perhaps downsizes them to highlight her larger points. For what it’s worth, the author also acknowledges that this book is not going to help the Left win those who are entrenched in white nationalism, but rather those who are truly more middle ground (which in her view is the economically disadvantaged).
For a book about stats and political anecdotes, both the author and the narrator kept me engaged regardless of how much I agreed or disagreed, no easy feat in a nearly 400-page audiobook! Each chapter felt like listening to a podcast (truly mean that in the best way!) and call me a nerd but I loved the key points recap at the end of each chapter!
Do I think this is a singular solution to bridge the diploma divide? Absolutely not. But I do think it provides a few steps on that bridge, and certainly provides some insightful and compelling counterpoints to far right talking points.
This book may appeal to those who liked: NIckel and Dimed, Cost of Living, White Rural Rage
Reviewed as part of #ARC from #NetGalley. Many thanks to Macmillan Audio/St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review.
Disclosure: I listened to the audiobook and did not have access to the print version, so I have not (yet) reviewed the author’s sources.
April 30, 2025
No one can get everything they want not because the other side is evil but, because the other side is different. from Outclassed
Joan C. Williams begins her book with a personal story. His family didn’t stay at a hotel when they visited, but expected to stay in her home. His family didn’t take visitors out to dine, they ate at home. Her upper class lifestyle clashed with her husband’s blue collar, working class lifestyle. She realized she was ‘class blind’.
In Outclassed, Williams considers what class and education reveals about how people vote, and notes that liberals must change their message to reach the working class.
Class is more than income, and Williams shows how education is a better way of considering class. Working class incomes can average the same as professional class. I get that.
I grew up in a blue collar family. My dad sold the family gas and service station to seek employment in the auto industry so he had a pension and health care. Working overtime meant my family had what it needed on one salary. We shopped at K-Mart and family gatherings were picnics and potlucks. I went to college and married another first generation college graduate. But our income never rose above lower middle class.
Williams covers recent history to explain how ‘we got to here.’
Williams considers how politics is affected by race, identity politics, the Electoral College and geographically electoral districts. She considers what changes Democrats must make to speak to working class voters. First, one needs to understand them and affirm their concerns and values–family first, community, patriotism, working hard, independence, faith, masculinity. The working class is proud.
It is easy to label those who vote differently as ignorant, racist, stupid, or libtards and anti-elite slurs. We need to move beyond stereotypes and engage in real dialogue. Williams contends that “the highly educated are in some ways the most insualar group.”
The book made me think a lot about my own experience with class, which helped me understand her argument. I took each chapter at a time, appreciating the ending bullet points to consolidate my understanding.
Thanks to the publisher for a free book.
Joan C. Williams begins her book with a personal story. His family didn’t stay at a hotel when they visited, but expected to stay in her home. His family didn’t take visitors out to dine, they ate at home. Her upper class lifestyle clashed with her husband’s blue collar, working class lifestyle. She realized she was ‘class blind’.
In Outclassed, Williams considers what class and education reveals about how people vote, and notes that liberals must change their message to reach the working class.
Class is more than income, and Williams shows how education is a better way of considering class. Working class incomes can average the same as professional class. I get that.
I grew up in a blue collar family. My dad sold the family gas and service station to seek employment in the auto industry so he had a pension and health care. Working overtime meant my family had what it needed on one salary. We shopped at K-Mart and family gatherings were picnics and potlucks. I went to college and married another first generation college graduate. But our income never rose above lower middle class.
Williams covers recent history to explain how ‘we got to here.’
Williams considers how politics is affected by race, identity politics, the Electoral College and geographically electoral districts. She considers what changes Democrats must make to speak to working class voters. First, one needs to understand them and affirm their concerns and values–family first, community, patriotism, working hard, independence, faith, masculinity. The working class is proud.
It is easy to label those who vote differently as ignorant, racist, stupid, or libtards and anti-elite slurs. We need to move beyond stereotypes and engage in real dialogue. Williams contends that “the highly educated are in some ways the most insualar group.”
The book made me think a lot about my own experience with class, which helped me understand her argument. I took each chapter at a time, appreciating the ending bullet points to consolidate my understanding.
Thanks to the publisher for a free book.
May 28, 2025
This book has a lot going for it. It tries to answer a very important question--why did the Democrats lose their advantage among the working class, and why are so many upper middle class voters today voting for the Democrats? Yes, we can all come up with a couple answers, but Williams carefully documents why the conventional wisdom is incomplete.
She is afraid that the progressive activists, with whom she mostly agrees, are going to abhor her, and accuse her of selling out. By contrast, I don't think she goes far enough towards issuing a smack down to some progressives. But she makes many good points--like comparing the success of the gay marriage struggle to the disastrous left messaging on trans issues. True, hindsight is 20/20, and success looks predetermined sometimes after it's accomplished, but she convinces me that the Democrats haven't got a good message on this issue yet, not by a long shot.
The real triumph is showing that even though the typical pundit tells you that culture issues have been replacing economic ones, that does NOT mean that class no longer matters. Class IS culture. Over and over, she points out the ignorance of Brahmin left in talking to the working class, because they are so isolated from the real lives of the White working class.
The book's greatest weakness is the pathetic conclusion. I've never read a book that was sailing along so well, and ended with such a wet fart of an ending. No grand vision, no ringing peroration, just "well, you heard my arguments, hope I don't get crucified by San Francisco progressives!, bye!" Weird.
The prose dragged a bit, and I thought less of the last third than the first two. But still, very worth a read, and really well researched, with great footnotes.
Minor mistake on stats that makes you wonder--she says Latinos are more concerned about crime (14% to 10%) but I very much doubt comparing racial subgroups would have a margin of error sufficient to make that a real difference?
She is afraid that the progressive activists, with whom she mostly agrees, are going to abhor her, and accuse her of selling out. By contrast, I don't think she goes far enough towards issuing a smack down to some progressives. But she makes many good points--like comparing the success of the gay marriage struggle to the disastrous left messaging on trans issues. True, hindsight is 20/20, and success looks predetermined sometimes after it's accomplished, but she convinces me that the Democrats haven't got a good message on this issue yet, not by a long shot.
The real triumph is showing that even though the typical pundit tells you that culture issues have been replacing economic ones, that does NOT mean that class no longer matters. Class IS culture. Over and over, she points out the ignorance of Brahmin left in talking to the working class, because they are so isolated from the real lives of the White working class.
The book's greatest weakness is the pathetic conclusion. I've never read a book that was sailing along so well, and ended with such a wet fart of an ending. No grand vision, no ringing peroration, just "well, you heard my arguments, hope I don't get crucified by San Francisco progressives!, bye!" Weird.
The prose dragged a bit, and I thought less of the last third than the first two. But still, very worth a read, and really well researched, with great footnotes.
Minor mistake on stats that makes you wonder--she says Latinos are more concerned about crime (14% to 10%) but I very much doubt comparing racial subgroups would have a margin of error sufficient to make that a real difference?
May 22, 2025
In Outclassed, Joan C. Williams explores how elitism, alongside neoliberalism and decades of culture wars™ has driven many middle-class voters away from the Democratic Party. Her argument is clear: condescension from “the left,” particularly college-educated progressives, has left many people feeling misunderstood and dismissed.
The chapter recaps were super helpful, especially as an audiobook listener. That said, I would’ve loved a PDF companion with a list of sources and key takeaways. I also found some of the terminology a little confusing. For example, “middle class,” “working class,” and “middle Americans” were often used interchangeably, and I wasn’t always sure who exactly she meant. I even went back to check how she defined “elites,” but never found a clear explanation. I think she means college-educated people? Also, I had never heard of the “Brahmin left” before and thought the narrator said “Ramen left” for a good chunk of the book 😅.
This book stirred more of an emotional reaction than I expected. For a long time, my mindset was basically, “you can’t reason with MAGA.” But Williams helped me better understand the resentment many people feel when progressives talk down to them or insist their beliefs are wrong. Most people—myself included—just want a stable job, to take care of their families, and to live a decent life. That shouldn’t be hard for Democrats or the broader left to tap into.
If you're looking for a more concise summary of her arguments, this interview in Jacobin is a great companion read.
Thank you to Libro.fm, the author Joan C. Williams, and St. Martin's Press/Macmillan Audio for the ALC and the opportunity to listen early.
The chapter recaps were super helpful, especially as an audiobook listener. That said, I would’ve loved a PDF companion with a list of sources and key takeaways. I also found some of the terminology a little confusing. For example, “middle class,” “working class,” and “middle Americans” were often used interchangeably, and I wasn’t always sure who exactly she meant. I even went back to check how she defined “elites,” but never found a clear explanation. I think she means college-educated people? Also, I had never heard of the “Brahmin left” before and thought the narrator said “Ramen left” for a good chunk of the book 😅.
This book stirred more of an emotional reaction than I expected. For a long time, my mindset was basically, “you can’t reason with MAGA.” But Williams helped me better understand the resentment many people feel when progressives talk down to them or insist their beliefs are wrong. Most people—myself included—just want a stable job, to take care of their families, and to live a decent life. That shouldn’t be hard for Democrats or the broader left to tap into.
If you're looking for a more concise summary of her arguments, this interview in Jacobin is a great companion read.
Thank you to Libro.fm, the author Joan C. Williams, and St. Martin's Press/Macmillan Audio for the ALC and the opportunity to listen early.
June 15, 2025
I just finished Outclasses - How the left lost the Working Class and how to win them back by Joan C Williams and here are my thoughts.
Just so you know, I do not like books that lean one way or the other with political view points. I like books that will give you both sides and are rational. This book is a left leaning book of propaganda but I gave it a fair shake but when it has things that sound like this…
“The far right manipulates class anger to undercut progressive goals and liberals often inadvertently play into their hands”
The left does the same thing with social issues. They are both ridiculous and this author did a horrible job with balance. THUMBS DOWN. I rarely post reviews of books that I think are terrible but this one deserved to be put on blast.
The next thing is they attempt to create arguments on how the left could potentially win back the working class Americans that after 4 years were made to feel unimportant… There was no power of conviction in her words and half assed. Blaming a political party into pulling the wool over their uneducated eyes… GROSS!
If a book is gonna lean one way or the other, at least make it interesting. I am fairly certain Professor Binns would have done a better job of engaging their audience. It was so boring.
I don’t recommend books with no balance and I don’t recommend books that condescend.
2 stars
Just so you know, I do not like books that lean one way or the other with political view points. I like books that will give you both sides and are rational. This book is a left leaning book of propaganda but I gave it a fair shake but when it has things that sound like this…
“The far right manipulates class anger to undercut progressive goals and liberals often inadvertently play into their hands”
The left does the same thing with social issues. They are both ridiculous and this author did a horrible job with balance. THUMBS DOWN. I rarely post reviews of books that I think are terrible but this one deserved to be put on blast.
The next thing is they attempt to create arguments on how the left could potentially win back the working class Americans that after 4 years were made to feel unimportant… There was no power of conviction in her words and half assed. Blaming a political party into pulling the wool over their uneducated eyes… GROSS!
If a book is gonna lean one way or the other, at least make it interesting. I am fairly certain Professor Binns would have done a better job of engaging their audience. It was so boring.
I don’t recommend books with no balance and I don’t recommend books that condescend.
2 stars
October 11, 2025
I'm not quite 1/3 of the way thru this book, so it's probably premature to give it a rating, but I'm finding this extraordinarily difficult to digest. Maybe it's because I've never taken a civics class or a political science class, so the vocabulary is unfamiliar. Maybe it's because I've only started to pay more than superficial attention to politics since 2016. Maybe it's because I was born & raised "non-elite" and have only become "elite" in recent years. Maybe it's all of the above. But I'm having to re-read paragraphs & sentences multiple times. Not because I'm distracted and wasn't paying attention the first time. I'm having to read them multiple times to try to parse out what the author is trying to say. For instance:
"This is the class logic of culture-wars debates over family values. The appeal of traditionalism is way overdetermined." WHAT??
Or "Trump's aura of aggrieved entitlement reflects that anger in honor cultures is a public performance designed to maintain status." ???
Anyway, back to it. I think this book contains important information, so I'm committed to finishing it. I just wish I wasn't having to spend so much time trying to interpret the meaning of the text and, often, finally just taking my best guess at a sentence and moving on, rather than stalling entirely and giving up.
"This is the class logic of culture-wars debates over family values. The appeal of traditionalism is way overdetermined." WHAT??
Or "Trump's aura of aggrieved entitlement reflects that anger in honor cultures is a public performance designed to maintain status." ???
Anyway, back to it. I think this book contains important information, so I'm committed to finishing it. I just wish I wasn't having to spend so much time trying to interpret the meaning of the text and, often, finally just taking my best guess at a sentence and moving on, rather than stalling entirely and giving up.
July 27, 2025
I loved this book — it’s smart, challenging, and incredibly relevant. Every chapter made me stop and think, and honestly, I feel like I need to read it again just to make sure I caught everything.
The way the author used data blew me away. The regression analysis on different voting populations was surprisingly easy to understand and added so much depth to her arguments.
This book made me rethink how I talk about the left, the right, and voters in general. It gave me a clearer picture of not just What Happened during Trump’s first presidency, but why our politics have evolved the way they have since.
I especially appreciated her insights into the economic middle 50% — a group sometimes left out of political conversations — and why certain messages spoke to them so powerfully.
It also made me reflect on my own life: how we raise our kids, the values we hold, whether we see ourselves as “order takers” or “order givers,” our levels of faith (or lack thereof), and the many ways these beliefs shape our communities.
If I had one wish, it’s that the book offered a tidy solution to our political divide — but I know that’s not realistic. Still, the recommendations she offers (no spoilers!) are excellent and give me hope that we can one day bridge the gap.
The way the author used data blew me away. The regression analysis on different voting populations was surprisingly easy to understand and added so much depth to her arguments.
This book made me rethink how I talk about the left, the right, and voters in general. It gave me a clearer picture of not just What Happened during Trump’s first presidency, but why our politics have evolved the way they have since.
I especially appreciated her insights into the economic middle 50% — a group sometimes left out of political conversations — and why certain messages spoke to them so powerfully.
It also made me reflect on my own life: how we raise our kids, the values we hold, whether we see ourselves as “order takers” or “order givers,” our levels of faith (or lack thereof), and the many ways these beliefs shape our communities.
If I had one wish, it’s that the book offered a tidy solution to our political divide — but I know that’s not realistic. Still, the recommendations she offers (no spoilers!) are excellent and give me hope that we can one day bridge the gap.
May 20, 2025
Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back by Joan C. Williams (book image in cover) feels less like a new book but more like an update on her previous book White Working Class. Expanding on the foundation of the previous book, this is more inclusive of all working class populations and provides more details on how the Right has used class anger to appeal to populations they didn't have access to in the past. In addition it provides a roadmap for the left to regain some traction again with portions of the working class population support they have lost.
The narration by Kirsten Potter made this academic topic easy to understand and follow, allowing me to complete the book in one sitting. I recommend this book for those who are interested in current affairs, socioeconomics and politics.
Thank you Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to listen to the ALC. All opinions are my own.
Rating: 5 Stars
Release Date: May 20 2025
#MacmillanAudio
#OutClassed
#JoanCWilliams
#KirstenPotter
#Economics
#Politics
#Nonfiction
#yarisbooknook
#netgalley
The narration by Kirsten Potter made this academic topic easy to understand and follow, allowing me to complete the book in one sitting. I recommend this book for those who are interested in current affairs, socioeconomics and politics.
Thank you Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to listen to the ALC. All opinions are my own.
Rating: 5 Stars
Release Date: May 20 2025
#MacmillanAudio
#OutClassed
#JoanCWilliams
#KirstenPotter
#Economics
#Politics
#Nonfiction
#yarisbooknook
#netgalley
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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September 1, 2025
Professor Joan C. Williams aims to answer the question of why the working class has turned it's back on the party that ushed to be synonymous with the working class. It is a bold undertaking and one with a lot of nuances. As someone who is deeply ingrained in the subject I found a lot of value in the data, research and antidotes but I don't think the average American would pick this book up and find it to be an easy read. I also wished Professor Williams had taken a harder look into how the internet, specifically social media, has made crafting messages on policies harder because you have to cut through so much noise. This isn't the 1990s when families gathered around the dinner table and then turned on the evening news; as Americans we are bombarded with information and news nearly every second of everyday.
I think the information within the book is important, but it isn't a book that is going to reach the masses so hopefully it reaches the right people within the DNC so they can adjust themselves---as they've needed to do for years.
Thank you to SMP for the gifted copy.
I think the information within the book is important, but it isn't a book that is going to reach the masses so hopefully it reaches the right people within the DNC so they can adjust themselves---as they've needed to do for years.
Thank you to SMP for the gifted copy.
February 14, 2025
I'm a fan of Arlie Hochschild, Michael Perry, Sarah Smarsh and Matthew Desmond; all authors who discuss class and culture. They've given me lots of insights I wouldn't have otherwise had.
I was hoping that this book would provide even more insights, especially in the framing of current debates over the direction of our country. I got glimmers here and there, and I persisted in finishing the book even when I felt discouraged.
This book has lots of stats and lengthy references. Unfortunately, having graphs of the data along with an explanation might have gone a lot farther to help readers understand what they are being told. There are some ideas that are reiterated enough to remember them, but certainly not enough.
It seems like the majority of people who I compare with (non-college grad, white, male, retired by disability, lower class and low-income worker) would generally vote differently than I do. But by the end of this book, I can't really tell you why. Darn it.
I was hoping that this book would provide even more insights, especially in the framing of current debates over the direction of our country. I got glimmers here and there, and I persisted in finishing the book even when I felt discouraged.
This book has lots of stats and lengthy references. Unfortunately, having graphs of the data along with an explanation might have gone a lot farther to help readers understand what they are being told. There are some ideas that are reiterated enough to remember them, but certainly not enough.
It seems like the majority of people who I compare with (non-college grad, white, male, retired by disability, lower class and low-income worker) would generally vote differently than I do. But by the end of this book, I can't really tell you why. Darn it.
September 15, 2025
There was a ton of really interesting and important stuff in here. Williams's class-based framework for why we have reached this level of division in American politics resonates in a way that no other explanation I've read has. I think she's absolutely spot on about identifying the appeal of MAGA to the precarious middle class who have seen their way of life hollowed out by globalization in recent decades and have seen treatment of this life in popular media shift from respect to scorn. Joan C. Williams treats these people with respect and empathy in her writing which I have recently found to be ... challenging.
I especially liked her discussion of how middle class values are born out of middle class lives and the differences in taste cultures between elites and the missing middle. Loses a few points because I felt that it sometimes got bogged down in specific stat after specific stat and that some of the latter chapters about policy messaging did not seem quite as strong to me.
I especially liked her discussion of how middle class values are born out of middle class lives and the differences in taste cultures between elites and the missing middle. Loses a few points because I felt that it sometimes got bogged down in specific stat after specific stat and that some of the latter chapters about policy messaging did not seem quite as strong to me.
May 14, 2025
This is a very interesting book with some good talking points that will leave you wanting to do some more research on the topic. It is written in a way that resembles an academic textbook, full of statistics that sometimes feel one-sided.
The title fits the book very well. The timing is also perfect with the growing political divide our country is experiencing. My biggest takeaway was the author's statement that voters don't trust the system. This makes sense to me. I believe that voters vote on what they want to see happen, feeling that it probably will not.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Joan C. Williams for the gifted advanced reader copy provided by NetGalley. All opinions of the book are my own and given voluntarily.
The title fits the book very well. The timing is also perfect with the growing political divide our country is experiencing. My biggest takeaway was the author's statement that voters don't trust the system. This makes sense to me. I believe that voters vote on what they want to see happen, feeling that it probably will not.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Joan C. Williams for the gifted advanced reader copy provided by NetGalley. All opinions of the book are my own and given voluntarily.
August 8, 2025
Out Classed by Joan C. Williams is a detailed, informative, and thought-provoking book. While I do not necessarily agree with or share all of Ms. William's beliefs, I found her work to be eye-opening and perspective-shifting. Immediately after finishing the book, I might have said that I didn't enjoy it. However, with time to reflect, I can see the value in her insights. The book has broadened my understanding and given me a different lens through which to approach conversations and situations. Williams presents an important perspective-one that, whether you agree with it or not, is worth hearing. In the end, Out Classed offers a meaningful contribution to discussions about class, identity and social divides.
August 26, 2025
I felt that this book was important for a lot of liberals and progressives to hear, as the overall message is accurate. Democrats are horrible communicators and that needs to change. I did see a few things missing that I found to be relevant.
The author really should have brought up Bernie Sanders. He did/does these things that she suggests. He got voters in the midwest on his side. However, he was ridiculed by democrats and news outlets refused to give him any positive coverage.
This leads to another point. There wasn’t any mention of democrat elites that influence anti-progressive policies and mentioning in the first place. She calls on donors to advocate for messaging they are purposely suppressing. I think that was a clear oversight in that section.
The author really should have brought up Bernie Sanders. He did/does these things that she suggests. He got voters in the midwest on his side. However, he was ridiculed by democrats and news outlets refused to give him any positive coverage.
This leads to another point. There wasn’t any mention of democrat elites that influence anti-progressive policies and mentioning in the first place. She calls on donors to advocate for messaging they are purposely suppressing. I think that was a clear oversight in that section.
June 15, 2025
Not really sure why this book got negative reviews. This is the single best book I’ve read about our current political movement and where we go from here.
I was raised in the country by working class parents who, over time, became middle class and then upper middle class. I know solidly identify with the Brahmin Left even if my background is not that.
So a lot of what the author describes as working class values of hard work and operating in structures like military and religion that confer respect based on hierarchy and hard work resonated deeply with me.
I would encourage anyone who works in politics to read this book and reflect on her arguments which can make our work better.
I was raised in the country by working class parents who, over time, became middle class and then upper middle class. I know solidly identify with the Brahmin Left even if my background is not that.
So a lot of what the author describes as working class values of hard work and operating in structures like military and religion that confer respect based on hierarchy and hard work resonated deeply with me.
I would encourage anyone who works in politics to read this book and reflect on her arguments which can make our work better.
July 10, 2025
I'm gonna go ahead and say that this was not an easy read; not that the content was uninteresting or irrelevant, but it can be really dense at times + there were one too many "examples" that referenced JD Vance and John Fetterman. I can see why many people would get turned off by this book. Despite that, I would recommend any center-left-far left person to read this book in tandem with Arlie Hochschild's "Strangers in their own land" to get a better understanding of why class dynamics are what's really polarizing our country. Joan Williams does an incredible amount of research to back up her claims/suggestions.
July 23, 2025
This book is crucial for our current political/societal (American) scene. How are populations manipulated by politicians? What are the differences between college educated, and non-college educated? This book has stats and research. It's really fascinating, and helpful to learn how we got where we are, and some of the contributing factors that led to this.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
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