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Authors: David Hilfiker,Marian Wright Edelman
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CANADA, GEOFFREY.
Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America.
Beacon Press, Boston, 1996. An autobiographical account by a leader in the African American community of growing up in the ghetto of the South Bronx and how the nature of inner-city violence changed significantly when easily available guns and automatic weapons replaced the fists, sticks, and knives.
Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America.
Beacon Press, Boston, 1996. An autobiographical account by a leader in the African American community of growing up in the ghetto of the South Bronx and how the nature of inner-city violence changed significantly when easily available guns and automatic weapons replaced the fists, sticks, and knives.
COPELAND, WARREN R.
And the Poor Get Welfare: The Ethics of Poverty in the U.S.
Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1994. Copeland, a theologian who wants to develop a Christian basis on which to approach welfare, reviews the approaches to poverty of four authors, two conservatives (Charles Murray and Lawrence Mean) and two liberals (Lisbeth Schorr and Francis Fox Piven). His exploration of the philosophies and theologies behind their approaches to poverty is clear and concise, helping one understand how people can look at the same problem yet propose such vastly different solutions.
And the Poor Get Welfare: The Ethics of Poverty in the U.S.
Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1994. Copeland, a theologian who wants to develop a Christian basis on which to approach welfare, reviews the approaches to poverty of four authors, two conservatives (Charles Murray and Lawrence Mean) and two liberals (Lisbeth Schorr and Francis Fox Piven). His exploration of the philosophies and theologies behind their approaches to poverty is clear and concise, helping one understand how people can look at the same problem yet propose such vastly different solutions.
CURRIE, ELLIOTT.
Crime and Punishment in America
. Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1998. Currie, a criminologist, lays out the six-fold expansion of the American prison system in the last two decades. He explores in some detail what we can and can’t expect from prisons and concludes that the current policy of incarcerating so many will only worsen our problems. He offers concrete solutions for change.
Crime and Punishment in America
. Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1998. Currie, a criminologist, lays out the six-fold expansion of the American prison system in the last two decades. He explores in some detail what we can and can’t expect from prisons and concludes that the current policy of incarcerating so many will only worsen our problems. He offers concrete solutions for change.
EDELMAN, PETER.
Searching for America’s Heart: RFK and the Renewal of Hope.
Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 2001. When President Clinton decided to sign the Welfare Reform bill of 1996, Edelman, then assistant secretary for planning and evaluation in the Department of Health and Human Services and a personal friend of the President, resigned from the administration in protest. Edelman, a lawyer who began his political career working for Robert Kennedy, accompanied him on a 1967 trip through poverty-stricken rural Mississippi that strongly influenced Kennedy’s politics. Half of this book is a first-person narrative of his work with Kennedy, focusing on Kennedy’s evolving insights into poverty. The second half explores what those insights might still have to offer us as we struggle to deal with poverty after welfare reform.
Searching for America’s Heart: RFK and the Renewal of Hope.
Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 2001. When President Clinton decided to sign the Welfare Reform bill of 1996, Edelman, then assistant secretary for planning and evaluation in the Department of Health and Human Services and a personal friend of the President, resigned from the administration in protest. Edelman, a lawyer who began his political career working for Robert Kennedy, accompanied him on a 1967 trip through poverty-stricken rural Mississippi that strongly influenced Kennedy’s politics. Half of this book is a first-person narrative of his work with Kennedy, focusing on Kennedy’s evolving insights into poverty. The second half explores what those insights might still have to offer us as we struggle to deal with poverty after welfare reform.
EDIN, KATHRYN AND LEIN, LAURA.
Making Ends Meet: How Single Mothers Survive Welfare and Low-Wage Work.
Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 1997. A sociologist and anthropologist extensively interview 379 single mothers—both those with low-wage jobs and those on AFDC—in four cities and offer us an antidote to many stereotypes of poor single-parent women. Collecting information about spending habits, additional sources of income, and other details of their lives, the authors document that virtually all the women need to receive more outside income and that welfare mothers are just as good at managing their money as working mothers.
Making Ends Meet: How Single Mothers Survive Welfare and Low-Wage Work.
Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 1997. A sociologist and anthropologist extensively interview 379 single mothers—both those with low-wage jobs and those on AFDC—in four cities and offer us an antidote to many stereotypes of poor single-parent women. Collecting information about spending habits, additional sources of income, and other details of their lives, the authors document that virtually all the women need to receive more outside income and that welfare mothers are just as good at managing their money as working mothers.
EHRENREICH, BARBARA.
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America.
Metropolitan Books, New York, 2001. A vivid first-person account by a well-known, middle-aged author who tries to live for several months as a woman leaving welfare might. In three different locales around the country, she moves in, tries to find jobs without using her skills as a writer, and lives for a month, hoping to earn enough to pay the next month’s rent. Her stories give a strong sense of how difficult the lives of the working poor are.
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America.
Metropolitan Books, New York, 2001. A vivid first-person account by a well-known, middle-aged author who tries to live for several months as a woman leaving welfare might. In three different locales around the country, she moves in, tries to find jobs without using her skills as a writer, and lives for a month, hoping to earn enough to pay the next month’s rent. Her stories give a strong sense of how difficult the lives of the working poor are.
FINNEGAN, WILLIAM.
Cold New World: Growing Up in Harder Country.
Random House, New York, 1999. A writer for
The New Yorker
, Finnegan spent many months at each of four locations: New Haven, Connecticut; San Augustine County, Texas; the Yakima Valley in Washington state; and Los Angeles, California. He writes about the lives of poor and working-class young people in each place. His portrayal of poverty is compassionate without being sentimental, and detailed without being harsh.
Cold New World: Growing Up in Harder Country.
Random House, New York, 1999. A writer for
The New Yorker
, Finnegan spent many months at each of four locations: New Haven, Connecticut; San Augustine County, Texas; the Yakima Valley in Washington state; and Los Angeles, California. He writes about the lives of poor and working-class young people in each place. His portrayal of poverty is compassionate without being sentimental, and detailed without being harsh.
FOLSOM, FRANKLIN.
American Before Welfare.
New York University Press, New York, 1996. A somewhat overlong narrative about American approaches to poverty before the current era, written by a man who was part of the labor struggle during the 1930s and thus has a radical labor perspective. It takes apart the conservative criticism that America used to take care of its poor very well primarily through individual effort and voluntary associations.
American Before Welfare.
New York University Press, New York, 1996. A somewhat overlong narrative about American approaches to poverty before the current era, written by a man who was part of the labor struggle during the 1930s and thus has a radical labor perspective. It takes apart the conservative criticism that America used to take care of its poor very well primarily through individual effort and voluntary associations.
FRANK, ROBERT H. AND COOK, PHILIP J.
The Winner-Take-All Society: Why the Few at the Top Get So Much More Than the Rest of Us.
Penguin Books, New York, 1985. This book is not about poverty at all. Frank and Cook, academic economists, offer some tantalizing new perceptions of how our economy works and make strong arguments for a return to steeply progressive tax rates. Their argument is that, given recent changes in communications and mechanization, many sectors of the economy reward the top few people far more than those just below them, even though differences in skill levels are minimal. They argue for a steeply progressive tax not just to fund needed programs, but to bring the market back into some semblance of order.
The Winner-Take-All Society: Why the Few at the Top Get So Much More Than the Rest of Us.
Penguin Books, New York, 1985. This book is not about poverty at all. Frank and Cook, academic economists, offer some tantalizing new perceptions of how our economy works and make strong arguments for a return to steeply progressive tax rates. Their argument is that, given recent changes in communications and mechanization, many sectors of the economy reward the top few people far more than those just below them, even though differences in skill levels are minimal. They argue for a steeply progressive tax not just to fund needed programs, but to bring the market back into some semblance of order.
HACKER, ANDREW.
Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal.
Ballantine Books, New York, 1995. Primarily a look at racism in the United States, it provides a great deal of help to whites trying to understand racism. Its statistical material tends to be much better than its rhetoric, and there is much here that helps in understanding poverty.
Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal.
Ballantine Books, New York, 1995. Primarily a look at racism in the United States, it provides a great deal of help to whites trying to understand racism. Its statistical material tends to be much better than its rhetoric, and there is much here that helps in understanding poverty.
ISSERMAN, MAURICE AND KAZIN, MICHAEL.
America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s.
Oxford University Press, New York, 2000. Primarily a history of America in the 1960s, but with two good chapters on the War on Poverty, its theory, inception, and dismantling.
America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s.
Oxford University Press, New York, 2000. Primarily a history of America in the 1960s, but with two good chapters on the War on Poverty, its theory, inception, and dismantling.
KATZ, MICHAEL B.: The foremost historian of American poverty and welfare. His books are required reading for anyone studying the subject:
In the Shadow of the Poorhouse: A Social History of Welfare in America.
Revised and updated tenth anniversary edition, Basic Books, New York, 1997. A long but interesting history of poverty and welfare in the United States. It is probably the single most helpful source on the history of poverty. In writing this text, I relied heavily on Katz’s ideas and structure presented here.
Revised and updated tenth anniversary edition, Basic Books, New York, 1997. A long but interesting history of poverty and welfare in the United States. It is probably the single most helpful source on the history of poverty. In writing this text, I relied heavily on Katz’s ideas and structure presented here.
The Undeserving Poor.
Random House, New York, 1990. Explores the long history of our attempt to separate the “deserving” from the “undeserving” poor. Our political willingness to help poor people is deeply grounded in our moral judgment of how we believe they came to be poor. Katz reviews the intellectual impact on the poverty debate of a number of influential thinkers and explores some critical notions in that debate, particularly about “the culture of poverty” and “the underclass.”
Random House, New York, 1990. Explores the long history of our attempt to separate the “deserving” from the “undeserving” poor. Our political willingness to help poor people is deeply grounded in our moral judgment of how we believe they came to be poor. Katz reviews the intellectual impact on the poverty debate of a number of influential thinkers and explores some critical notions in that debate, particularly about “the culture of poverty” and “the underclass.”
Improving Poor People: The Welfare State, the “Underclass,” and Urban Schools as History.
Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 1995. An excellent summary of some of Katz’s other works, this is a series of three lengthy review articles by Katz on the welfare state, the underclass, and urban schools, along with three case histories of poverty, with commentary. Katz makes the point that that the primary approach to poverty in the United States has always been based on the thesis that if we could improve poor people themselves, poverty would go away. One difficulty with this book is that it is a summary, so some of Katz’s statements—quite thoroughly researched and explored in earlier books—can seem here more like unsubstantiated opinion.
Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 1995. An excellent summary of some of Katz’s other works, this is a series of three lengthy review articles by Katz on the welfare state, the underclass, and urban schools, along with three case histories of poverty, with commentary. Katz makes the point that that the primary approach to poverty in the United States has always been based on the thesis that if we could improve poor people themselves, poverty would go away. One difficulty with this book is that it is a summary, so some of Katz’s statements—quite thoroughly researched and explored in earlier books—can seem here more like unsubstantiated opinion.
The Price of Citizenship: Redefining the American Welfare State.
Metropolitan Books, New York, 2001. A close look at the history of welfare since the Family Support Act of 1988, which was in many ways the beginning of contemporary American welfare reform. Katz suggests that the deserving/undeserving dichotomy has spread into other areas of welfare such as unemployment insurance, retirement benefits, and disability insurance, all of which have become less reliable sources of support in the last decades. His ultimate question concerns the price of citizenship: how “deserving” must I be in order to qualify for the social insurance that citizenship in a wealthy state might confer?
Metropolitan Books, New York, 2001. A close look at the history of welfare since the Family Support Act of 1988, which was in many ways the beginning of contemporary American welfare reform. Katz suggests that the deserving/undeserving dichotomy has spread into other areas of welfare such as unemployment insurance, retirement benefits, and disability insurance, all of which have become less reliable sources of support in the last decades. His ultimate question concerns the price of citizenship: how “deserving” must I be in order to qualify for the social insurance that citizenship in a wealthy state might confer?
KOZOL, JONATHAN: an educator, storyteller and author who has written eloquently, sensitively, and prolifically about poverty, usually from the point of view of the poor children he has met in his research. Although Kozol doesn’t flinch from analysis and critique, each of his books is a first-person account of his own immersion into the world he visits, full of the stories of actual people, so there is an immediacy and a power in his work missing from most books analyzing and critiquing poverty and the policies that surround it.
Rachel and Her Children: Homeless Families in America.
Fawcett Columbine, New York, 1989. Kozol spends time in the family shelter system of New York City. A powerful element in this book is his first-person look at the indignities of being on welfare and how difficult the system is to traverse.
Fawcett Columbine, New York, 1989. Kozol spends time in the family shelter system of New York City. A powerful element in this book is his first-person look at the indignities of being on welfare and how difficult the system is to traverse.
Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools.
Perennial, New York, 1992. Kozol is a muckraker of the highest caliber. This book explores the plight of inner-city schools in scathing detail.
Perennial, New York, 1992. Kozol is a muckraker of the highest caliber. This book explores the plight of inner-city schools in scathing detail.
Amazing Grace.
Perennial, New York, 1996. Kozol spends months in the South Bronx, one of the poorest communities in the United States, and tells about the children he meets. He also offers the emotionally powerful, well-reasoned argument that few people would be able to escape the ravages of the inner-city ghetto and that our only option is to dismantle it.
Perennial, New York, 1996. Kozol spends months in the South Bronx, one of the poorest communities in the United States, and tells about the children he meets. He also offers the emotionally powerful, well-reasoned argument that few people would be able to escape the ravages of the inner-city ghetto and that our only option is to dismantle it.
LIEBOW, ELLIOT: Liebow was an academic sociologist. However, at the beginning and end of his academic career (he died in 1994) he did some case-study sociology, spending months in one location and writing about what he saw.
Tally’s Corner.
Little, Brown, Boston, 1967. A classic book on poverty, this is a study of men who hung out on a particular street corner in a Washington, D.C., inner-city area (reportedly two blocks from my former clinic). Liebow just hung around with the men and let them tell their own stories. It’s a simple, short book that documents how easy it is to lose initiative after hanging out on the corner for a while.
Little, Brown, Boston, 1967. A classic book on poverty, this is a study of men who hung out on a particular street corner in a Washington, D.C., inner-city area (reportedly two blocks from my former clinic). Liebow just hung around with the men and let them tell their own stories. It’s a simple, short book that documents how easy it is to lose initiative after hanging out on the corner for a while.
Tell Them Who I Am: The Lives of Homeless Women.
Penguin Books, New York, 1995. Liebow was working at the National Institutes of Health when he found out that he had an incurable cancer but had some time to live. He quit his job and began volunteering at a shelter and a soup kitchen in suburban Maryland just outside of Washington, D.C. Based on those experiences, this book, in a way familiar from
Tally’s Corner
, lets homeless women tell their own stories and look at their own lives.
Penguin Books, New York, 1995. Liebow was working at the National Institutes of Health when he found out that he had an incurable cancer but had some time to live. He quit his job and began volunteering at a shelter and a soup kitchen in suburban Maryland just outside of Washington, D.C. Based on those experiences, this book, in a way familiar from
Tally’s Corner
, lets homeless women tell their own stories and look at their own lives.
LUPTON, ROBERT D.
Return Flight: Community Development through Reneighboring Our Cities.
FCS Urban Ministries, Atlanta, 1997. A brief account of the author’s move to inner-city Atlanta to establish a neighborhood integrated both racially and economically. Ghetto communities need not only outside investment but also the physical presence of the investors.
Return Flight: Community Development through Reneighboring Our Cities.
FCS Urban Ministries, Atlanta, 1997. A brief account of the author’s move to inner-city Atlanta to establish a neighborhood integrated both racially and economically. Ghetto communities need not only outside investment but also the physical presence of the investors.
MASSEY, DOUGLAS S. AND DENTON, NANCY A.
American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass.
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1994. The authors are sociologists who explore the history of segregation, especially northern urban segregation. They make a compelling argument that without segregation there would be no ghetto, and black and white rates of poverty would not be so dissimilar. They are convinced—and convincing—that we will never end urban poverty without dismantling the ghetto. Statistics are impressively marshaled to support their argument persuasively.
American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass.
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1994. The authors are sociologists who explore the history of segregation, especially northern urban segregation. They make a compelling argument that without segregation there would be no ghetto, and black and white rates of poverty would not be so dissimilar. They are convinced—and convincing—that we will never end urban poverty without dismantling the ghetto. Statistics are impressively marshaled to support their argument persuasively.
NEWMAN, KATHERINE S.
No Shame in My Game.
Vintage Books, New York, 2000. An excellent look at a crucial recent change in the face of poverty, the increasing numbers of poor people who are working full time or almost full time, yet cannot pull their families out of poverty.
No Shame in My Game.
Vintage Books, New York, 2000. An excellent look at a crucial recent change in the face of poverty, the increasing numbers of poor people who are working full time or almost full time, yet cannot pull their families out of poverty.
PARENTI, CHRISTIAN.
Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis.
Verso, New York, 2000. This is an especially frightening book about the prison system. Parenti offers insight into the prison population explosion, but the central thrust of the book is an exploration of the increasing “paramilitarization” of the police, Immigration and Naturalization Service, FBI, and other law enforcement organizations that has led to a wholesale loss of civil rights for minorities.
Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis.
Verso, New York, 2000. This is an especially frightening book about the prison system. Parenti offers insight into the prison population explosion, but the central thrust of the book is an exploration of the increasing “paramilitarization” of the police, Immigration and Naturalization Service, FBI, and other law enforcement organizations that has led to a wholesale loss of civil rights for minorities.
POPPENDIECK, JANET.
Sweet Charity? Emergency Food and the End of Entitlement.
Penguin Books, New York, 1999. Technically, this is just a study of the emergence of soup kitchens, food pantries, and food banks over the past twenty years. But in analyzing the phenomenon, Poppendieck explores more thoroughly than any other author the contradictions between charity and justice. Does charity impede justice? Do works of charity lessen the pressure on a system to create structures of justice? Does all the energy spent on charity exhaust those who might otherwise work to create new structures?
Sweet Charity? Emergency Food and the End of Entitlement.
Penguin Books, New York, 1999. Technically, this is just a study of the emergence of soup kitchens, food pantries, and food banks over the past twenty years. But in analyzing the phenomenon, Poppendieck explores more thoroughly than any other author the contradictions between charity and justice. Does charity impede justice? Do works of charity lessen the pressure on a system to create structures of justice? Does all the energy spent on charity exhaust those who might otherwise work to create new structures?
BOOK: Urban Injustice: How Ghettos Happen
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