Outclassed

Why read it

• Argues that the educated left loses noncollege voters through class blindness, and that the far right fills the gap
• Helps you tell apart the persuadable from the hard core, and connect economic policy to dignity and respect
• Turns the lens on professionals themselves, showing their tastes and credentials as a class culture rather than neutral competence

Who it is for

• Progressive organizers and campaign staff
• Professionals puzzled by relatives who vote differently
• Policy makers designing jobs, housing and benefit programs

What the summary covers

1. The Divide Hidden in Plain Sight4 min
2. How Economic Change Became Political Abandonment3 min
3. Two Moral Worlds, Neither a Caricature4 min
4. What Elite Culture Cannot See About Itself3 min
5. Rebuild Dignity Materially3 min
6. A Multiracial Coalition Needs a Better Explanation4 min
7. Put Respect into Practice4 min

Recommended by

• 
  Jonathan HaidtSocial psychologist and professor at NYU Stern School of Business

  Williams gets it. She makes the effort to understand the legitimate moral concerns of working class and middle class people

• H
  Arlie Russell HochschildAuthor of Stolen Pride
• 
  Ro KhannaU.S. Representative from California

  Bold and intriguing. Williams’ voice is needed now more than ever.

About the author

• 
  Joan C. WilliamsEmerita Distinguished Professor of Law at University of California College of the Law, San Francisco

  • She holds degrees from Yale, Harvard and MIT, and an honorary PhD from Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
  • She was a professor of property law at American University's Washington College of Law before joining the law faculty at UC Law San Francisco in 2005.
  • She founded the Center for WorkLife Law in 1998 at American University.
  • Her 2003 law review article "Beyond the Maternal Wall" argued that discrimination based on motherhood is sex discrimination under Title VII, a theory the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission adopted in 2007.
  • She has written 12 books and 116 academic articles in law, sociology, psychology, medical and management journals.
  • Her 2016 essay on why Trump attracted so many non college voters became the most read article in the 90 year history of Harvard Business Review.
  • She received the American Bar Foundation's Outstanding Scholar Award in 2012 and the ABA's Margaret Brent Women Award for Lawyers of Achievement in 2006.
  • She is Distinguished Professor of Law (Emerita) at UC Law San Francisco and Founding Director of its Equality Action Center.

Read it alongside

• Goes deeperThe Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together

  Joan C. Williams argues that racial division works as a strategy protecting concentrated power; Heather McGhee traces how a racial zero sum story drained public goods in the United States, costing many white voters too.

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