Underdogs

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A01=Joel Budd
Author_Joel Budd
Brexit
Category=JPA
Category=NHTB
chav
class
Conservative
cultural history
culture
diversity
economics
elite
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
history
immigration
Labour
left wing
liberal
liberalism
outsider
parliament
politics
poverty
racism
right wing
social class
social history
society
Tory
Trump
underclass
unemployment

Product details

  • ISBN 9781035015160
  • Weight: 228g
  • Dimensions: 129 x 197mm
  • Publication Date: 14 May 2026
  • Publisher: Pan Macmillan
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Paperback
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‘Essential reading’ The Daily Telegraph
‘Not just well timed but admirably powerful’ The Guardian
‘Packed with revealing content’ Independent

Underdogs is a surprising journey into the heart of the misunderstood white working class. And it might just change how you see Britain.

Brexit helped to turn the white working class into a social and political force, but in its aftermath one-third of the population has been reduced to a caricature. Portrayed as angry and hostile to change, as xenophobic, even racist, it’s a tired narrative favoured by both politicians and the press. The truth is far more compelling.

In Underdogs, Economist journalist Joel Budd takes us across the UK, from Teesside to the Isle of Wight, from the Valleys of South Wales to the fields of Lincolnshire, talking with a diverse group of people about their jobs, their families and neighbourhoods, their struggles and hopes.

Offering an eye-opening corrective to the familiar stereotype, Budd shows that white working- class people are not just grumbling about the transformation of Britain. Instead, with warmth and determination, they are pushing the country forward.

Joel Budd has written for The Economist magazine since 2003. He has covered topics as wide-ranging as crime, California, international development and demography, as well as writing many articles and leaders about Britain. Before joining The Economist he studied and taught European history at New York University. He is a photographer, a baritone singer and an enthusiastic hiker, who is sadly not as young as he was. Underdogs is his first book.

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