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Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America Hardcover – Illustrated, June 4, 2019

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"A profound book.... It will break your heart but also leave you with hope." —J.D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy

"[A] deeply empathetic book." —The Economist

With stark photo essays and unforgettable true stories, Chris Arnade cuts through "expert" pontification on inequality, addiction, and poverty to allow those who have been left behind to define themselves on their own terms.

After abandoning his Wall Street career, Chris Arnade decided to document poverty and addiction in the Bronx. He began interviewing, photographing, and becoming close friends with homeless addicts, and spent hours in drug dens and McDonald's. Then he started driving across America to see how the rest of the country compared. He found the same types of stories everywhere, across lines of race, ethnicity, religion, and geography.

The people he got to know, from Alabama and California to Maine and Nevada, gave Arnade a new respect for the dignity and resilience of what he calls America's Back Row--those who lack the credentials and advantages of the so-called meritocratic upper class. The strivers in the Front Row, with their advanced degrees and upward mobility, see the Back Row's values as worthless. They scorn anyone who stays in a dying town or city as foolish, and mock anyone who clings to religion or tradition as naïve.

As Takeesha, a woman in the Bronx, told Arnade, she wants to be seen she sees herself: "a prostitute, a mother of six, and a child of God." This book is his attempt to help the rest of us truly see, hear, and respect millions of people who've been left behind.

Reading age

1 year and up
Print length

304 pages
Language

English
Dimensions

7.3 x 1 x 9.73 inches
Publisher

Sentinel
Publication date

June 4, 2019
ISBN-10

0525534733
ISBN-13

978-0525534730
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From the Publisher

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Dignity is ‘about’ inequality in much the same way that James Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men—a seminal study of tenant farmers in Alabama, illustrated with stark photographs by Walker Evans—was ‘about’ the Great Depression. Both works illuminate the reality of political and economic forces that might seem familiar in outline, by showing their effects on ordinary people.”
–The Economist

”Like Orwell, Mr. Arnade spent a long time with the people he would write about, and he renders them sharply, with an eye for revelatory detail.”
–The Wall Street Journal

“Dignity is not overtly political, but it’s almost certainly going to be the most important political book of the year.”
–Rod Dreher, author of The Benedict Option

“Dignity is one of the best nonfiction books published in my lifetime.”
–Matthew Walther, The Week

“A careful, quiet, admirable effort to understand and chronicle the lives of people living in de-industrialized and impoverished communities across the country.”
–Pacific Standard

“Candid, empathetic portraits of silenced men, women, and children.”
–Kirkus

“Dignity is a profound book, taking us to parts of our country that many of our leaders never visit, and introducing us to people those same leaders don't know. It will break your heart but also leave you with hope, because Chris Arnade's ‘back row America’ contains not just struggle, but also perseverance, resilience, and love.”
–J.D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy

“Since the 2016 presidential election, pundits have been speculating about what’s going on with America’s underclass. Chris Arnade actually asked them. In dozens of detailed, sensitively rendered case studies, Arnade’s subjects speak frankly about their lives, revealing that material resources and opportunities are sorely needed, but that the greater damage done to America’s poor and suffering people may be interior, even spiritual. In that sense, Dignity—with all its tender focus on “back-row” people—says even more about America’s elite, and what they’ve wrought.”
–Elizabeth Bruenig, The Washington Post

“At times difficult to read, because it brings fully into view people who many would rather not see, Dignity guides us to forlorn places where our countrymen struggle to live lives of decency and self-respect, and calls for a deep reexamination of the kind of world that too often congratulates itself on its progress and enlightenment while keeping hidden the costs exacted upon the least among us.”
–Patrick J. Deneen, Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame

“The rise of populism drew long overdue attention to those forgotten and the left behind, only to reduce them to a political symbol over which vicious partisan battles are waged. Arnade's book brings our focus back to the dignity and lives of ordinary people, who are still just as forgotten and left behind.”
–Angela Nagle, author of Kill All Normies

"Chris Arnade's remarkable journey from Wall Street banker to chronicler of 'back-row America' teaches some important lessons to those in ‘the front row’: Even—or especially—on the edge of poverty, abuse, and addiction, our fellow citizens yearn for the same sense of community and human connectedness that we all desire. In a culture that celebrates material wealth and credentials, the immaterial still reigns supreme: faith, honor, place, and friendship. In setting out to learn from others, Chris Arnade learned much about himself, and we can all learn from Dignity.”
–Senator Tom Cotton

About the Author

Chris Arnade is a freelance writer and photographer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Atlantic, Guardian, Washington Post, Financial Times, and Wall Street Journal among many others. He has a PhD in physics from Johns Hopkins University and worked for twenty years as a trader at an elite Wall Street bank before leaving in 2012 to document addiction in the Bronx.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

I first walked into the Hunts Point neighborhood of the Bronx because I was told not to. I was told it was too dangerous, too poor, and that I was too white. I was told “nobody goes there for anything other than drugs and prostitutes.” The people directly telling me this were my colleagues (other bankers), my neighbors (other wealthy Brooklynites), and my friends (other academics). All, like me, successful, well-educated people who had opinions on the Bronx but had never really been there.

It was 2011, and I was in my eighteenth year as a Wall Street bond trader. My workdays were spent sitting behind a wall of computers, gambling on flashing numbers, in a downtown Manhattan trading floor filled with hundreds of others doing exactly the same thing. My home life was spent in a large Brooklyn apartment, in a neighborhood filled with other successful people.

I wasn’t in the mood for listening to anyone, especially other bankers, other academics, and the educated experts who were my neighbors. I hadn’t been for a few years. In 2008, the financial crisis had consumed the country and my life, sending the company I worked for, Citibank, into a spiral stopped only by a government bailout. I had just seen where our—my own included—hubris had taken us and what it had cost the country. Not that it had actually cost us bankers, or my neighbors, much of anything.

I had always taken long walks, sometimes as long as fifteen miles, to explore and reduce stress, but now the walks began to evolve. Rather than walk with some plan to walk the entire length of Broadway, or along the length of a subway line, I started walking the less seen parts of New York City, the parts people claimed were unsafe or uninteresting, walking with no goal other than eventually getting home. Along the walk I talked to whoever talked to me, and I let their suggestions, not my instincts and maps, navigate me. I also used my camera to take portraits of those I met, and I became more and more drawn to the stories people inevitably wanted to share about their life.

The walks, the portraits, the stories I heard, the places they took me, became a process of learning in a different kind of way. Not from textbooks, or statistics, or spreadsheets, or PowerPoint presentations, or classrooms, or speeches, or documentaries—but from people.

What I started seeing, and learning, was just how cloistered and privileged my world was and how narrow and selfish I was. Not just in how I lived but in what and how I thought.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sentinel; Illustrated edition (June 4, 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0525534733
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0525534730
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 1 year and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.25 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.3 x 1 x 9.73 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #357,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #42 in Cultural Policy
- #79 in Photojournalism (Books)
- #178 in Poverty

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4.5 793 ratings

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E. Gardner

Once of the best books on how America got to where it is

Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2020

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Very few books fundamentally change your outlook on life. Dignity, by Chris Arnade, is one of those books. Chris Arnade is a financier-turned-photographer who became disillusioned with his industry after the 2008–09 financial collapse. He turned to photography. After working at in investment bank in lower Manhattan he would walk towards the poor and forgotten parts of New York — taking pictures and talking with its residents.

He developed a framework to view modern America: The Front Row and Back Row. The Front Row is the overachievers, the ones who sat in the front row of class, got the right credentials and found themselves upwardly mobile in today’s information economy. They tend to migrate towards cities. The other, the back row, are those who didn’t. They either lacked the skills or didn’t value the credentials our new economy required. They were left behind.

Major politicians have spent the last two decades, arguing that our modern economy requires upskilling and movement. It’s an individual’s choice to be left behind. Sure, manufacturing is moving overseas, but so what? We’ll get cheaper socks, and if you’re a factory worker who lost their job, you should learn to code and move to a city. Do “value-added” work.

The problem with this mindset, and one Arnade articulates exceptionally well, is that it fails to account for the immeasurable aspects of life. What if you can’t move? Or you don’t want to? Social networks are incredibly hard to build as an adult. What if all you want is to put in 8-solid hours a day, provide for your family and support your community? These decisions aren’t cut and dry, and despite the common perception, they can’t be measured in an employment report.

I have a feeling that the last thirty years have been the loneliest thirty years in America’s existence. Churches, unions, and other community groups provided people with a sense of belonging. All are now increasingly irrelevant in American life. They’ve been replaced by a cutthroat competition that devalues the average individual’s contribution.

I think part of my appreciation is that, despite being a member of the front-row with multiple degrees, I spent about 10 months of my mid-twenties unemployed. I worked for a small business that went bankrupt. Obviously, being unemployed sucks because you have no idea how you’re going to pay rent. However, it wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was the social stigma attached to it. In America, and especially New York City (where I lived at the time), what you did for a living is a fundamentally part of your identity. I would go to parties and dates and mostly have no identity. It wears at you. You become increasingly isolated. During this time I joined Crossfit. Despite being unemployed I still spend $200 a month on exercise. Why? It gave me a sense of belonging. Meaning. Without it, I’m not sure how I would have coped.

Arnade shows, through photographs and narrative, that this cycle has destroyed entire communities. We’ve managed to individualize a structural problem, and the result is an onslaught of depression and despair. Thirty years ago, rural communities had keystone manufacturers that provided meaning for an area. Now people make minimum wage at Dollar General. Sure, they could move, but where? Who would they watch football with? Where would they go to church? What about child care?

But hey, they can buy cheap socks!

Obama famously said that de-industrialization meant that rural people increasingly clinging to guns and religion. He said it in a somewhat disparaging way. At the time, I agreed with him. I thought that if people are struggling, they should get new skills or better their life — not cling to the past.

Chris Arnade’s book made me re-think this entire paradigm, which is about the biggest compliment you can give a book.

9 people found this helpful

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Steven N. Silver

Distance between the front and back row is widening, never a good thing.

Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2023

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The author visited small town America, mostly poor, minority, and often dangerous areas, for five years. His narrative was razor sharp; the photography was compelling. He was open about himself; fortunate, Catholic, liberal, with periods of alcohol and prescription drug abuse. He would ask others, " How do you want to be described?" And he would listen. He overcame mistrust, and he understood that interviewees did not want to be analyzed, humiliated or ignored. Most were without degrees or credentials, living in bleak neighborhoods without legal employment, and with at most limited ways to make money; sell drugs, weapons, protection, or exploited women. They looked for purpose and place in which they felt valued, often turf and bars, and parenthood for which they were often unprepared. Their parents might be absent or addicted. Many were born into rejection, isolation and despair.
Many in America's back row find shelter, escape from boredom, and community at McDonalds or other fast-food restaurants, and through evangelical churches in small buildings built for a different purpose. Through church they get hope, inclusion, esteem, guidance and freedom from rejection and judgment related to crime and addiction histories. Their material possessions are limited, but usually include bibles and religious icons. Often, they are advised to move, but limited resources and options, hopelessness and the need to care for extended family can interfere. (For many blacks, moves historically have been forced).
The author suggests the need for those in the front row (most Americans are back row) to listen more, to be aware of the less fortunate and to not judge, and to have greater appreciation for dignity and respect based less so on credentials and material things, and more on family, friendships, pride, faith and happiness; dignity and respect for aspects of life that can't be measured. An expanded view of success, for what is valued, is needed. And a greater tolerance for diversity.
The front row are the people that will likely read this book, and they tend to value college and academic degree, material things, position and money. But there are other things that matter just as much. What can be dangerous is when the (usually) back row glorifies racial identity; along with pride there is often a capacity for blame and for hate.
This book heightened my awareness, respect, and empathy for those less fortunate.
The distance between the front and the back row is now widening, and that is never good for long term stability.

One person found this helpful

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Quasicon

Globalism Walmart Drugs and Communities

Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2019

Verified Purchase

We bought this hoping for real insight, and it was there, in many thoughtful observations. A lot of time and effort went into this study, and I appreciate that. The true drug situation is revealed and it is just horrific.
We did feel insulted once again by the references to Trump, who in our opinion, has actually tackled the fallout from middle and back row America being forgotten in the race to be world citizens first, that the elite seem so bent on. We watched Walmart wreck our home town. We are bitter clingers and deplorables, but also educated, professional, religious rural people, front row in a better world than the author's. Our world is filled with farmers, coal miners, road crews, engineers, cattlemen, and it is a proud and working masculine culture, far from the suburbs and large cities.
The author did leave many things unsaid, to his credit, that allows the reader to draw his own conclusions. Flannery O'Connor's brilliant tactic leaves the reader feeling smart, and shows respect for them. Telling a story is enough. Political interpretations that can only please the elite and insult the rest are best avoided.

133 people found this helpful

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Navaneethan Santhanam

Grim but interesting

Reviewed in India on December 27, 2023

Verified Purchase

I found Arnade’s exploration of the “America you don’t see” interesting. In parts, it was sad and uncomfortable to read about the pain and misery many people experience. There’s a tension between people who value mobility, advancement, with a visible “having made it” and those who value place, family, and their (Christian) faith. I fall pretty squarely in the first category, and this book attempts to showcase the argument for the other side.

Eye opening

Reviewed in Italy on July 22, 2023

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Excellent

Dennis

POWERFUL

Reviewed in Canada on February 6, 2021

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You cannot go wrong with this book. Opens your eyes to what we should all be striving for in the name of humanity.

MarcoPolo

"Back row": das Gift zerstörter Würde

Reviewed in Germany on February 3, 2020

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Als Angestellter im New Yorker Wallstreet-Business war Christ Arnade ein Vertreter der "front row": gut verdienend inmitten gut verdienender Nachbarn, selbstverständlich liberal und "inklusiv" in seiner gesellschaftlichen Haltung. Die Toleranz der Mittelschicht hat aber eine Grenze: Wer nicht in der Lage oder nicht willens ist, Bildungsangebote anzunehmen, passt nicht ins Konzept einer Hochproduktivitäts-Wirtschaft. Wer es vorzieht, im Heimatort und bei der Familie zu bleiben, statt der Nachfrage am Arbeitsmarkt nachzureisen, gilt als dumb, verstockt und nicht zu retten.

Das ist die - längst auch in Europa - wachsende Schicht der "back row". Menschen, die zurückbleiben und sich isolieren in bröckelnden Stadtteilen oder Mietskasernen. Drogen bringen die Illusion von Lebensqualität und am Ende den toxischen Kreislauf von persönlichem Niedergang, kaputten Familien und Gewalt. Chris Arnade sucht sie auf und spricht mit ihnen. Offen, empathisch, ohne dabei dem einseitigen oder romantisierenden Blick des "Gutmenschen" zu verfallen. Er fängt ihre Lebenswelt sensibel und respektvoll in Fotos ein. Sein Buch wächst mit jeder Seite zu einem mächtigen Appell an die Wohlstandsgesellschaften: Kultivierung, Bildung, Mobilität und Weltoffenheit sind großartige Werte - aber nicht zwangsläufig universell. Einen Teil der Gesellschaft überfordern sie und werden sie auch in Zukunft überfordern. Wenn wir nach dem Untergang von Millionen Arbeitsplätzen in der Industrie nicht neue Wege finden, diesen Menschen als Leistenden wie Konsumierenden Teilhabe und Würde in der Gesellschaft anzubieten, werden eben diese Menschen unseren Wohlstand, unsere Freiheit und unsere Demokratien auf eine schwere Probe stellen.

One person found this helpful

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Ramona Liberoff

A tough and honest look at those left behind

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 30, 2020

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What this book makes clear is that America’s poor are invisible and misunderstood, and that much well intentioned liberal policy does not give them dignity. It is a fine and harrowing read and should make us all feel a little more direct connection with each other.

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