White working-class people are the canary in the mine. Poorly understood and perceived as a threat to the common good – unintelligent, self-destructive, utterly incapable of leveraging their own privilege - white working-class people have recaptured the cultural and political imagination in the wake of the 2016 presidential election. Pundits, politicos, cultural commentators, party leaders and many others are scrambling to understand what makes this demographic tick with mixed results. Scape-goated for all things racist and identified as the voting block that gave the country its most divisive leader in a generation, they are not what they seem: so much more than common xenophobes and red-hat wearing nostalgics for a lost time of white supremacy, this group begs for a richer, more nuanced portrait if they are to be loved and impacted by Christian faith and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Tex Sample, acclaimed author of White Soul and Hard Living People, is a reliable and reader-friendly guide through the current literature with keen eye on the implications of understanding this group so pastors and leaders can better communicate the Good News of Jesus and work for a more just society that values black and white lives and creates the partnerships that lead to the good life for all. This book also describes how our inability to sustain attention to the value of black lives is a traveling companion to our failure to understand or care about the pain and anger of working class whites. Calling Christians (individuals, as well as communities of faith) to a concrete version of social well-being befitting faithful life in Jesus and God’s vision of justice for the world, Tex Sample drills deeper into the realities of a group of people whose suffering and anger is denied, ignored, or misunderstood. The conclusion? Working for real-world, Gospel-centered change (spiritual, social, political, cultural) requires a field guide to the people we too often stereotype or misunderstand. They can be partners when we frame a message of hope built on a sense of vocation to life in Jesus – the good life for all.

Cooperation strong enough to resist white supremacy and value everybody demands a richer understanding of white working-class pain and anger.

"Michael Pierse is Lecturer in Irish literature at Queen's University Belfast. His research mainly explores the writing and cultural production of Irish working-class life. Over recent years this work has expanded into new multidisciplinary themes and international contexts, including the study of festivals, digital methodologies in public humanities and theatre-as-research practices. Michael has contributed to a range of national and international publications, is the author of Writing Ireland's Working Class: Dublin after O'Casey (2011), and has been awarded several Arts and Humanities Research Council awards and the Vice Chancellor's Award at Queen's"--

This book explores the ways that council estates have been represented in England across a range of performance forms. Drawing on examples from mainstream, site-specific and resident-led performance works, it considers the political potential of contemporary performance practices concerned with the council estate. Depictions of the council estate are brought into dialogue with global representations of what Chris Richardson and Hans Skott-Myhre call the 'hood', to tease out the specific features of the British context and situate the work globally. Katie Beswick's study provides a timely contribution to the ongoing national and global interest in social housing. As the housing market grows ever more insecure, and estates are charged with political rhetoric, theatre and socially engaged art set or taking place on estates takes on a new potency. Mainstream theatre works examined include Rita, Sue and Bob Too and A State Affair at the Soho Theatre, Port at the National Theatre, and DenMarked at the Battersea Arts Centre. The book also explores the National Youth Theatre's Slick and Roger Hiorns' Seizure, as well as community-based and resident led performances by Fourthland, Jordan McKenzie, Fugitive Images and Jane English.

This book is the best-known work of Engels, and in many ways still the best study of the working class in Victorian England. It was also Engel's first book, written during his stay in Manchester from 1842 to 1844. Manchester was then at the very heart of the Industrial Revolution and Engels compiled his study from his own observations and detailed contemporary reports. This edition includes the prefaces to the English and American editions, and a map of Manchester.