What was the topic of the book, The Other American?

The title of the book The Other American is a play on the title of Michael Harrington’s famous book The Other America.  The Other American is a biography of Michael Harrington.  Its subject is Michael Harrington and how his life and work fits in to the American political and intellectual trends of his time.

Harrington’s book The Other Americawas a groundbreaking work in its time.  The book was published in 1962.  At that...

The title of the book The Other American is a play on the title of Michael Harrington’s famous book The Other America.  The Other American is a biography of Michael Harrington.  Its subject is Michael Harrington and how his life and work fits in to the American political and intellectual trends of his time.

Harrington’s book The Other America was a groundbreaking work in its time.  The book was published in 1962.  At that time, poverty was not much of an issue in American politics.  Harrington helped to change that through his book.  In the book, he argued that poverty was much more pervasive than most people thought. He claimed that up to 25% of Americans were living in poverty.  He asserted that these people were largely invisible to the majority of Americans.  Harrington said that, in a country as rich as ours, it was a disgrace that there should be such misery.  The Other America came into the public eye and was influential among some American leaders.  Some people, like the author of The Other American, argue that Harrington’s book helped to bring about the “War on Poverty” that Lyndon B. Johnson instituted while he was president.

The Other American, then, is a biography of the man who wrote The Other America.  It seeks to explain why Harrington was so concerned with poverty.  It also tries to place Harrington within the context of contemporary American political and intellectual thought.