The book examines the effect of class barriers on blue collar workers by mirroring occupational/ethnic backgrounds of the white manual-laboring population in the Boston area through urban anthropological observations as well as 150 in-depth interviews conducted in 1969-70. It mainly reflects the experience of middle-aged, third generation American males. The authors explore the moral hierarchy of national and cultural differences, the effects of the intrusion of urban renewal, and the dilemma of working people trying to find out what position they occupy in America. The interviews generally reflected a crisis in self-respect of the working man, a hidden anxiety of feeling inadequately in control with feelings of self-defeat. A central position of the book is that everyone in society is subject to a scheme of values whereby they must unremittingly validate self by wearing "badges of ability" in order to win others' respect and their own. The authors examine worker sacrifices, hopes, and defenses in light of the tangled, complex relationship of denied freedom and dignity, and perceive the psychological motivation of a class society as being the healing of self-doubt, which, in turn, keeps the class order going. (EA)