Disillusionment

The disillusionment experienced by the people profiled in this book begins, in most cases, with a nagging sense of something having gone kilter in their lives. Many of them go through years of disappointments and hardships before it dawns on them that there are real inequities in America that make it more difficult for them to succeed no matter how hard they work.

Tammy Thomas, for instance, after she loses her long-term union job in a Youngstown, Ohio factory is stunned that the business to which she has devoted many years of faithful service is willing to let her go as simply as turning off a light bulb. She finds that her labor union is basically powerless to prevent her layoff or to find other work for her, and begins making drastic cuts in her standard of living to feed her children.

When Tammy sees the collapse of...