As an immigrant from UK, and unfamiliar with the topic from any angle whatsoever, this small book was packed with extraordinary observations I found to be exceptionally informative, helping me to overcome misinformation and prejudices I didn't even know I had. It was humbling and necessarily so. It speaks clearly to the intensely conflicted dilemma of chronically poor black men and their families during the fifties but has relevance in understanding the continuing dilemma of the great number of still struggling black families of today and it is a sad fact that there still seem to be so many. The study is rich with little known facts (to me and others like me) about the economic realities and struggles of black people caught in circumstances beyond their control and the various coping behaviors that at times were so utterly self defeating. If nothing else, my heightened awareness of the complex variables that come into play in the experiences of suffering in any marginalized group, made it worth reading. A fine study, should be required reading for high school students, particularly those in privileged private settings, who might become aware of their own sense of entitlement and how that impacts race relations. It provides a rare inside glimpse to a minority experience most of us will never ever be able to comprehend, though we need to make the effort. Ignorance is no excuse for prejudice but it is the main cause of it.