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LIMBO

Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams

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Limbo Critical Book Review

Presented to

Jennifer Enderlin

Arkansas Tech University

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OL 4963

Organizational Leadership Capstone

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by

Josie Dunn

T01104017

11/6/2023
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Lubrano, A. (2004). Limbo: Blue-collar roots, white-collar dreams. Wiley.

Introduction

Limbo Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams was written by Alfred Lubrano and

published by Hohn Wiley and Sons, Incorporated. Alfred Lubrano won awards in journalism and

has 21 years of experience. He is a staff reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, a contributing

editor to G.Q., and a commentator on National Public radio. (Wabash) He attended Columbia

University in the late 1970’s. Alfred Lubrano’s father also went to Columbia University at the

same time, but for a completely different reason. Lubrano was going to college for his degree

and his father was laying bricks for a building being made on the campus. Alfred Lubrano is a

white-collar individual, and his father is a blue-collar individual.

Alfred Lubrano wrote this book because he was a working-class kid son of a brick lawyer

and the first person in his family to finish high school. He noted immediately in college how

different he was from most of the kids who were going to school at Columbia. He had a sense

that something was going on that he was not clued into. So, he started thinking about what it is

that he was made of that the others were not. He noticed the gap between him and his father

because he was becoming an educated person. He also noticed the gap between him and the

other kids at school. He felt as if he was in limbo and why he named his book that.

Summary

Lubrano set out to write this book to help people understand the struggles of moving

from working class to middle class. A blue-collar worker can make as much as a white-collar

worker. According to Lubrano, the difference between a blue-collar worker and a white-collar

worker is not based on income. Instead, the difference is based on two factors: education level

and work type. A blue-collar worker may have a high school diploma or a trade or even a small
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degree. A white-collar worker will have at least a bachelor’s degree. The blue-collar worker

usually works with his hands or in the service industry. The white-collar worker works in the

office or at a computer.

One point Alfred Lubrano makes is that class consciousness is called the “c” word on

campus. People will not talk about it, there are very few majors in working class studies, those

that exist are at smaller schools. The notion of class goes against the sense of people as

Americans. The great American myth is that “We all pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.” Kids

who are brought up in a middle-class home were brought up with books around, parents around,

and attend college. Working class home conversations are limited and the topics of conversations

are limited.

Straddlers are a big part of this book. Straddlers are the individuals that grow up in a

blue-collar family, and then grow up to become white-collar. The author conducted over 100

interviews with the people he called straddlers. They were the first of their families to graduate

college. (Wabash) They are straddlers because they straddle two different worlds and feel at

home in neither.

Critical Evaluation

The author’s purpose or what he hopes to accomplish through this book is said to have

come from the very beginning. This book is a step toward understanding what people gain and

what they leave behind as they move from the working class to the middle class. (10) Alfred

Lubrano more than accomplished his purpose. He defined what he called straddlers to help him

accomplish his goal. Straddlers are the one out of five working class Americans that go to

college and become middle class. He brings in real world examples of the challenges and

triumphs of these Americans moving up the social ladder.

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The author does approach it with a certain bias because he comes from the blue-collar

world and moves up to white collar. He was a working-class kid from Brooklyn who then

became middle class after a college degree. Even though he does have the bias he does get his

point thoroughly across. He uses his background to add to the story and make it more relatable to

more individuals. He gives examples of his father being of the working class and not

understanding his son’s life choices after graduating college. Alfred Lubrano goes back and forth

throughout the book explaining both social classes and how they intertwin sometimes.

A person should read this book because it sheds light on hidden parts of the world a person

normally does not think about. The book explores the underappreciated topic of class dynamics

and how it affects a person's life as well as the real cultural distinctions between blue-collar

versus white-collar Americans. “Working-class people are overawed by doctors and lawyers.

The middle class knows how to talk to such folks and realizes they are just as fallible and corrupt

as the rest of us.” Working-class people are on the lower end of the making money. Working-

class people put doctors and lawyers who make more than they will ever make in a lifetime in

only one year or less on high pedestals.

In Chapter six of Limbo, it is about navigating the political nature of the office terrain. Every

class of person must understand how to get through the political nature of the office terrain and a

higher level of education will help that. High School does not teach the ways of an office

environment and the knowledge needed for one. Higher education increases the knowledge of

the way to speak, and the technology used in it. A higher education teaches more terminology

and how to get things done in an office. In the book on page 151 it talks about how middle and

working class speak in different tongues. There is also a part, and it reads, "Beyond the language

barrier, there was that confidence thing, the middle-class assuredness demonstrated by even
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junior staff, whose parents were second- or third-generation white collar. “They always assumed

they were going to do a good job. I couldn’t.” " The higher the education the easier it would be

to understand what is being said. White collar with a higher education could understand more of

the working class as well.

A weakness in the book is that it is evident that Lubrano does not take intersectionality into

account, and this makes his treatment of race agonizing throughout the book. The book does

have a limit in application to specific types of subjects. The entire book is about blue- collar and

white-collar lives, and the straddlers who live in the middle of both. If a person wanted to learn

about the presidents of the United States, they would not read this book.

Conclusion

Overall, this book was an deep look inside the lives of straddlers. Growing up in a blue-

collar family seems to make that family closer. Growing up in a blue-collar family makes you

want better for your children. Blue collar fathers seem to be more stereotypical than others. I

could relate to the leaving home part, by if I ever decided to leave this town my mother would

throw a huge fit. She threw a big enough fit when I just moved out of the house. I go to her house

every weekend, unlike most people. I also want better for my children than I or my parents had. I

want them to be set up for life, and I work hard for their education.

I would recommend this book to anyone who feels like they are stuck in the middle of the

working class and white collar. We may feel like we are in a sort of limbo, but this book helps

decipher those feelings in the best possible ways. I learned that I am not the only one that feels

stuck where I am at. I had a working-class father. My father in a way is like Lubrano’s because

he had to work hard every day to make money. My father never went past eighth grade and could
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never get a “regular” job and worked using labor and intensive work. I made a vow to myself

that I would never be like him. This book gave me a better understanding of social class and

what it means to other people. I can apply this information to my personal life by becoming a

better leader based off the new knowledge.

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Work Cited

Wabash College. (n.d.). Magazine. https://www.wabash.edu/magazine/index.cfm?

news_id=2130