NOTE: You can find The Missing Class at your bookstore, or order it on Amazon or Powells.com. (Use these links and a portion of the sale price goes to InTheFray.)

Sorry that I've been away from this blog for so long. One of the reasons for the delay is that the book I co-authored — The Missing Class: Portraits of the Near Poor in America — has just come out. The New York Times mentions the book in Sunday's edition.

I co-authored The Missing Class with Princeton sociologist Katherine S. Newman. Senator John Edwards wrote the foreword. The book focuses on the nearly one in five Americans who live just above the poverty line, a population much larger than those living in poverty. They work long hours, sometimes at multiple jobs, but they do not receive many public benefits (which are for the poor) and lack real financial security. In fact, some of the families we write about eventually fell back into poverty after a layoff, divorce, illness, or other crisis.

My hope is that through the stories of the nine families profiled in this book, we can bring more attention to this ignored population and inspire discussion about policies that could keep these hard-working Americans from slipping back down the economic ladder. Poverty takes a toll not just on the families who suffer it, but also on society in general, which must bear the collective costs in ruined health, growing crime, blighted neighborhoods, and wasted potential. We should be doing more to help these families avoid such a fate.

UPDATED 9/26/07: Please see more recent posts for an updated schedule.