Recent years have seen the faltering of economic growth, the erosion of the welfare state and the disappearance of social consensus. Nowhere have these processes cut more deeply than in the inner city, where industrial decline, low income, persistent high unemployment and housing decay are fuelling crime and racial tension to create our most daunting social problem. Combining interviews and eye-witness accounts with his own analysis, the author provides a portrait of the underside of the affluent society and the hidden human costs of public policies. From dying factories to social security offices, from single mothers to street thieves, it offers an insight into the realities of deprivation and social conflict in Britain today.