1. LIMBO: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams
Book Review
By: Becky Higgs

2. Introduction
In the book, Limbo: Blue-Collar roots, White-Collar dreams, Alfred Lubrano describes himself as two people. He says that he now lives a middle-class life, working at a white-collar newspaperman’s job, but he was born blue- collar. He describes this book as a step toward understanding what people gain and what they leave behind as they move from the working class to the middle class.

3. Summary
Alfred Lubrano discusses two types of blue-collar families, ones that encourage college and ones that do not. The book tackles the blue collar / white collar culture. He began his book by defining two working classes, blue collar and white collar. He defines a straddle as someone who came from working-class backgrounds but managed to move to the middle class, and is consequently stuck in “an American Limbo.” By pointing out the differences in white collar and blue collar, he describes his life in the home of a blue-collar family. He discusses the struggles that straddlers go through in college and later at their white collar jobs and in their white collar surroundings.

4. Summary Cont’d
Most people probably expect that a blue collar kid going to college will experience some culture clashes and struggles with the family, but the idea that these struggles will continue past college is not a given. Lubrano highlights the key areas in which the blue collar culture the straddler was raised with clashes with the expectations of a white collar job and can hurt a career.

5. Critical Evaluation
The book is a strong testament of Lubrano’s life and the successes that came from his hardships while transitioning working classes. I believe that this book is quite relevant to today’s culture when you have such a wide range of working class cultures in the field. With active millennials taking over the work force, it’s important for blue- collar workers to pay attention and heed caution not to be ran over.

6. Conclusion
My opinion of this book is two-fold. I feel that on a personal level, I relate to Lubrano as I also grew up in a blue-collar home. I relate to him as I watched my parents work day in and day out and felt the financial pain they suffered through during my childhood. On a professional level, I relate to Lubrano as I have struggled to find where I fit into the corporate world. During my fifteen year career journey thus far, I’ve learned a great deal about working classes and how that affects the job market and even status figures in the corporate world.