"The strength of Someplace Like America is Maharidge's ability to tell the story of the down and out, a story made all the more real by the photographs of Michael Williamson. Yes, perhaps sociologists could learn to humanize our subjects, especially in quantitative accounts of inequality . . . Instead, the real challenge is to understand why we have not witnessed a broad-based class mobilization to challenge the massive growth in inequality in America that Maharidge and Williamson so deftly document in this book."—Contemporary Sociology
“Through powerful essays and haunting photographs we experience how typical middle class Americans have endured job loss, poverty and homelessness.”—Dayton Daily News
“The really wonderful thing about the book is that it's not just a cavalcade of ruin porn—it's very honest about the hardships that the working poor face on a daily basis, but it shines as bright a light on the resilience that Maharidge ultimately hopes will be everyone's salvation. You'll meet some really interesting people, and get to experience what is really a legitimate journalistic adventure. . . . It comes with a huge clutch of Michael Williamson's excellent photojournalism as well.”—Huffington Post
"Future journalists and citizen bloggers should study this book for its craft. . . . It's full of hard-core examples of the kind of reporting that defeats stereotypes and challenges the status quo. . . . Williamson's black-and-white photos also tell powerful stories. . . . They are breathtaking in scope and detail."—New Labor Forum
“The evening (and morning and 24 hour) news spends a great deal of time on the American economy, but watching well dressed and perfectly groomed anchors talk about statistics, show political sound bites, and interview down on their luck families just isn’t the same as reading Dale Maharidge’s words or looking at Michael S. Williamson’s photographs."—PopMatters
“Maharidge and Williamson deliver a heart-wrenching and thought-provoking work. . . . Williamson’s stunning black-and-white photographs span three decades and capture pockets of a crumbling America that few have witnessed. He and Maharidge give a much-needed voice to the people who continue to fall through the cracks—people who want neither your pity nor your politics as they fight to survive and to regain a sense of pride in themselves and in their nation.”—Santa Fe New Mexican
“These boys saw the floorboards giving out while the rest of America danced in the pig and whistle. Maharidge and Williamson have a document here that may be even more important in a generation than it is today.”—Charlie LeDuff, author of
Work and Other Sins: Life in New York City and Thereabouts “Through the voices and stories of working-class people, Maharidge and Williamson provide insight into the current situation, reminding us of the history of economic struggle and the importance of understanding our culture from the bottom up.”—John Russo, co-author of
Steeltown U.S.A.: Work and Memory in Youngstown “This is a deeply felt and beautifully crafted book. Maharidge and Williamson are brave and clear-eyed in chronicling the struggle of America’s workers.”—Todd DePastino, author of
Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness Shaped America "In this moving and urgent book, Maharidge and Williamson continue to dig through the social wreckage of three decades of economic plunder, courageously documenting the uprooted and displaced, the uncertain and the fearful.
Someplace Like America peers into the dark heart of a society that has turned its back on working people--and that may be on the cusp of abandoning its dignity as well. In the smoldering occupational ruins of what once was, Maharidge also manages to find hopeful embers of what might one day be. A disturbing retrospective on twenty-five years of reporting on the long-term dissolution of the American dream."—Jefferson Cowie, Cornell University, author of
Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class