"The Truly Disadvantaged should spur critical thinking in many quarters about the causes and possible remedies for inner city poverty. As policy makers grapple with the problems of an enlarged underclass they--as well as community leaders and all concerned Americans of all races--would be advised to examine Mr. Wilson's incisive analysis."--Robert Greenstein, New York Times Book Review
"'Must reading' for civil-rights leaders, leaders of advocacy organizations for the poor, and for elected officials in our major urban centers."--Bernard C. Watson, Journal of Negro Education
"Required reading for anyone, presidential candidate or private citizen, who really wants to address the growing plight of the black urban underclass."--David J. Garrow, Washington Post Book World
Selected by the editors of the New York Times Book Review as one of the sixteen best books of 1987.
Winner of the 1988 C. Wright Mills Award of the Society for the Study of Social Problems.

In July 1995, Chicagoans suffered through a blistering week-long heat wave that buckled streets and downed portions of the city's power grid. It also left over 700 people dead. In this alarming book, Eric Klinenberg tells us how such fatalities could have happened in a modern American city. The picture he paints - of social breakdown, unresponsive government and poorly equipped public services - is one no reader interested in the current state of American urbanism can afford to ignore.