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A review by elwirax
Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class by Owen Jones
informative
medium-paced
3.5
I can't say this book really introduced me to anything I have not yet encountered. However, I agreed with many of the core points presented by Jones. I found chapters 2 and 8 the most intriguing, though I was perhaps more invested in the 2016 preface, which was better written and more streamlined in its analysis.
The book was written in an accessible manner and utilised both primary and secondary supporting evidence. While it is considerably left-biased in its discussions of the topic, it adequately considered right-wing views through interviews and quotes from journalists and politicians. Nonetheless, I do think that the author's string of thought got somewhat tangled in parts, which was compounded by very selective source referencing. I found myself reading statistics or correlations and asking, "Where is the source for this statement?" This did, however, make me curious enough to research contemporary statistics and it is shocking how very little things have changed in the past two decades or so.
Additionally, there was a considerable amount of repetition which could have been omitted for a shorter and more concise discussion. I would have also liked to see a more robust course of action for how we move forward in discussing class and the demonisation of the working class.
Overall, this was a very interesting and well researched book, albeit slightly outdated at the time of reading it.
The book was written in an accessible manner and utilised both primary and secondary supporting evidence. While it is considerably left-biased in its discussions of the topic, it adequately considered right-wing views through interviews and quotes from journalists and politicians. Nonetheless, I do think that the author's string of thought got somewhat tangled in parts, which was compounded by very selective source referencing. I found myself reading statistics or correlations and asking, "Where is the source for this statement?" This did, however, make me curious enough to research contemporary statistics and it is shocking how very little things have changed in the past two decades or so.
Additionally, there was a considerable amount of repetition which could have been omitted for a shorter and more concise discussion. I would have also liked to see a more robust course of action for how we move forward in discussing class and the demonisation of the working class.
Overall, this was a very interesting and well researched book, albeit slightly outdated at the time of reading it.