Best Seller on Poverty Picked for Next 'One Book, One Community' Reading Program

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The Working Poor, by David K. Shipler

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Working Poor: Invisible in America, a national best seller by David K. Shipler, has been chosen for the fall 2012 One Book, One Community reading and study program. The book, published in 2004, profiles dozens of people in this country who have jobs, work hard, but can’t seem to escape the cycle of poverty.

“In an election year, when the economy is going to be the number one campaign issue, the One Book, One Community committee wanted to find a book that would be relevant and would speak to the issues that people are most concerned with,” said Kevin Fitzpatrick, co-chair of the committee. “This book is more than a relentless catalogue of the problems faced by our ‘working poor’ – Shipler carefully examines the social and political issues involved, and offers solid recommendations for ways to attack the interlocking causes of this national crisis.”

Shipler’s book is based on his stated premise that “nobody who works hard should be poor in America.” He introduces the broad variety of people who fall in the category of “working poor” – white and black, Asian and Latino, citizens and immigrants – and considers both the failed social systems and their own “bad choices” that together keep them trapped in poverty.

David Shipler followed a distinguished career as a New York Times correspondent by writing several bestselling books, including Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land, which won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction. He has recently written two books on the subject of civil liberties, and currently is the author of The Shipler Report blog.

Shipler will visit the University of Arkansas in October as part of the One Book, One Community project. He will speak with students who are reading, discussing and writing about his book as part of their English Composition or other courses, and will deliver a public lecture as well, for members of the community interested in taking part in the annual program.

This will be the fourth year of the One Book, One Community project. Its success on campus and in the community prompted Chancellor G. David Gearhart to provide the project with a permanent budget, drawing on money from private donations to the Chancellor’s Fund.

“The One Book, One Community project brings our campus and community together for a common discussion of timely and globally important subjects," said Gearhart."The response to the Full Circle Campus Food Pantry this past year was a reminder that concerns about the working poor are very real, even in our university community. I applaud the committee's selection and am looking forward to reading it, and to the discussions and educational programs that will be a part of this project."