Riches for the Poor: The Clemente Course in the Humanities

by Earl Shorris

Overview

"You've been cheated," Earl Shorris tells a classroom of poor people in New York City.

"Rich people learn the humanities; you didn't. . . . It is generally accepted in America that the liberal arts and humanities in particular belong to the elite. I think you're the elite." In this groundbreaking work, Shorris examines the nature of poverty in America today. Why are people poor, and why do they stay poor? Shorris argues that they lack politics, or the ability to participate fully in the public world; knowing only the immediacy and oppression of force, the poor remain trapped and isolated. To test his theory, Shorris creates an experimental school teaching the humanities to poor people, giving them the means to reflect and negotiate rather than react. The results are nothing short of astonishing. Originally published in hardcover under the title New American Blues.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393320664
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	09/17/2000
Edition description:	Subsequent
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 5.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Earl Shorris (1936–2012) was the author of many works of both fiction and non-fiction including Latinos, Under the Fifth Sun, In the Language of Kings, and Riches for the Poor. He was awarded a National Humanities Medal by President Clinton for his founding of the Clemente Course in the Humanities®, Inc.

Table of Contents

	Intentions	xiii
I.	Richer Than Rockefeller	3
II.	A Game of Poverty: Definitions	12
III.	Born for Each Other	25
IV.	The Golden Age of Poverty	34
V.	The Surround of Force	40
VI.	The Mirror of Force	50
VII.	The Fallacy of Work	59
VIII.	Citizenship by Exclusion	65
IX.	Across Cultures	78
X.	Political Inventions	85
XI.	A Prison Epiphany	95
XII.	Radical Humanism	101
XIII.	The Clemente Experiment Begins	118
XIV.	The Bard Course	159
XV.	The Curriculum	173
XVI.	Variations and Self-Criticism	216
XVII.	Other Countries, Other Cultures	230
XVIII.	Conclusion: A Dangerous Corollary	253
	Appendix	257
	Index	261