In pursuit of answers, Chavs covers a lot of ground. It's a history of the British class system, a long-form indictment of Margaret Thatcher's social and economic policies and a rowdy broadside against London's elite media and political circles. Its combination of wit and outrage…is intoxicating…Mr. Jones is…hideously talented…[Chavs is] something to behold, a work of passion, sympathy and moral grace. The New York Times
A thought-provoking examination of a relatively new yet widespread derogatory characterization of the working class in Britain as a highly distinct social group of feckless, violence-prone bigots, called Chavs. Jones, a former trade union lobbyist and parliamentary researcher, traces the rise of this terminology through negative media representations of working-class people that is frequently elitist, hysterical, and disingenuous. He sees the source of this contempt in the decline of industry and manufacturing that accompanied the ongoing assault on trade unionism and the working classes from Margaret Thatcher in the 1970s through Tony Blair's New Labour and up to the present Conservative government. Out of this process, the author argues, the working-class's loss of voice and lack of representation of its views has become the face of Britain's decline. Jones does a fine job of revealing the snobbery and old-fashioned classism behind such intolerance and how the ever-widening gap between Britain's most privileged citizens and its most needful has exposed Tony Blair's claim about a new classless society as a myth. The author arguably perpetrates some myths of his own by his romanticizing of an idyllic working-class community forged through manual work and trade unionism. Nonetheless, as an indictment of the ideological destruction of the welfare stare it is edifying and disquieting in equal measure. (July)
A passionate and well-documented denunciation of the upper-class contempt for the proles that has recently become so visible in the British class system.”—Eric Hobsbawm, Guardian “A work of passion, sympathy and moral grace.”—Dwight Garner, New York Times “A bold attempt to rewind political orthodoxies; to reintroduce class as a political variable ... It moves in and out of postwar British history with great agility, weaving together complex questions of class, culture and identity with a lightness of touch. Jones torches the political class to great effect.”—Jon Cruddas, Independent (Book of the Week) “It is a timely book. The white working class seems to be the one group in society that it is still acceptable to sneer at, ridicule, even incite hatred against ... Forensically ... Jones seeks to explain how, thanks to politics, the working class has shifted from being regarded as ‘the salt of the earth to the scum of the earth.’”—Carol Midgley, Times (Book of the Week) “Superb and angry.”—Polly Toynbee, Guardian “Seen in the light of the riots and the worldwide Occupy protests, his lucid analysis of a divided society appears uncannily prescient.”—Matthew Higgs, Artforum “As with all the best polemics, a luminous anger backlights his prose.”—Economist “Chavs is persuasively argued, and packed full of good reporting and useful information ... [Jones] makes an important contribution to a revivified debate about class.”—Lynsey Hanley, Guardian “A lively, well-reasoned and informative counterblast to the notion that Britain is now more or less a classless society.”—Sean O'Hagan, Observer “A trenchant exposure of our new class hatred and what lies behind it.”—John Carey, author of The Intellectuals and the Masses “The stereotyping and hatred of the working class in Britain, documented so clearly by Owen Jones in this important book, should cause all to flinch. Reflecting our high levels of inequality, the stigmatization of the working class is a serious barrier to social justice and progressive change.”—Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson, authors of The Spirit Level “Eloquent and impassioned.”—Andrew Neather, Evening Standard “Jones’s analysis of the condition of the working class is very astute ... A book like this is very much needed for the American scene, where the illusion is similarly perpetuated by the Democrats that the middle-class is all that matters, that everyone can aspire to join the middle-class or is already part of it.”—Anis Shivani, Huffington Post “Everybody knows what a chav is, it seems, but no one is a chav. But then it’s a word unlike any other in current usage ... A new book, Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class , by first-time author Owen Jones ... has thrown the word into the spotlight all over again.”—Carole Cadwalladr, Observer “A blinding read.”—Suzanne Moore, Guardian “[A] thought-provoking examination of a relatively new yet widespread derogatory characterization of the working class in Britain ... edifying and disquieting in equal measure.”—Publishers Weekly “A fiery reminder of how the system has failed the poor.”—Peter Hoskin, Daily Beast “Mr. Jones’s book is a cleareyed examination of the British class system, and it poses this brutal question: ‘How has hatred of working-class people become so socially acceptable?’ His timely answers combine wit, left-wing politics and outrage.”—Dwight Garner, New York Times
A work of passion, sympathy and moral grace.
Dwight Garner - New York Times
It moves in and out of postwar British history with great agility, weaving together complex questions of class, culture and identity with a lightness of touch.
A timely book.
Book of the Week - The Times
A lively, well-reasoned and informative counterblast to the notion that Britain is now more or less a classless society.
A blinding read.
Persuasively argued, and packed full of good reporting and useful information … [Jones] makes an important contribution to a revivified debate about class.
Superb and angry.
A work of passion, sympathy and moral grace. Dwight Garner
A timely book. Book of the Week
A lively, well-reasoned and informative counterblast to the notion that Britain is now more or less a classless society. Sean O'Hagan
A blinding read. Suzanne Moore