In what is destined to become one of the most important books published this year, Lillian Rubin takes us inside the lives, hearts, and minds of America's working-class families and lets us hear them speak. With an eloquence rivaling that of her earlier classic, Worlds of Pain, Lillian Rubin lays bare the dreams, disappointments, insecurities, loves, and hates of those she calls "the invisible Americans." Based on nearly four hundred interviews with...

On Dec. 22, 1984, a thin, blond, seemingly ordinary young man shot four teenagers on a New York subway train. In a city where violent crimes are common-place, where everyone talks about the hazards of riding the subway; such an event would not seem extraordinary. Yet this was different. The gunmman was white, the youth black. And his shots sent a tremor across the land.