No Shame in My Game: The Working Poor in the Inner City

In No Shame in My Game, Harvard anthropologist Katherine Newman gives voice to a population for whom work, family, and self-esteem are top priorities despite all the factors that make earning a living next to impossible -- minimum wage, lack of child care and health care, and a desperate shortage of even low-paying jobs. By intimately following the lives of nearly 300 inner-city workers and job seekers for two years in Harlem, Newman explores a side of poverty often ignored by media and politicians -- the working poor.

These workers persevere in a country that, more than any other, measures self-worth through employment but deems "hamburger flipping" jobs unworthy. The working poor find dignity in earning a paycheck and shunning the welfare system, arguing that even low-paying jobs give order to their lives. No Shame in My Game shows us a misrepresented segment of today's society, and is sure to spark dialogue over the issues surrounding poverty, working, and welfare.