Underdogs

A Financial Times Summer Read 2025

A BBC Radio 4 'Book of the Week'

'Essential reading' - Telegraph

'Not just well timed but admirably powerful' - The Guardian

'A calm, sensitive, soothingly sociological book' - The Sunday Times

'Will change how you see Britain' - Robert Ford, author of Brexitland

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Underdogs is a surprising journey into the heart of the misunderstood white working class. And it might just change how you see Britain.

While Brexit helped to turn the white working class into a social and political force, in its aftermath one-third of the population has been reduced to a caricature. Portrayed as angry and hostile to change, as xenophobic, even racist, it’s a tired narrative favoured by both politicians and the press.

The truth is far more compelling.

In Underdogs, Economist journalist Joel Budd takes us across the UK, from the shores of Teesside to the Isle of Wight, from the Valleys of South Wales to the fields of Lincolnshire, talking with a diverse group of people about their jobs, their families and neighbourhoods, their struggles and hopes.

Offering an eye-opening corrective to the familiar stereotype, Budd discovers the white working class are not just grumbling about the transformation of Britain. With warmth and determination, they are pushing the country forward.