Poverty and the Underclass: Changing Perceptions of the Poor in America

Kelso, William A.

ISBN 10: 0814746616 / ISBN 13: 9780814746615

Verlag: New York University Press, New York and London, 1994

Beschreibung

339 pp., ix. '1' in number line. Following the Preface, Contents divided into 16 Chapters in 5 Parts: Part I THE POVERTY DEBATE (1) "Doesn't anything work? Is a War Against Poverty Really Possible?"; (2) "Poverty: How Serious Is the Problem?"; (3) "What Is Causing the Problem? An Overview"; Part II EXPLAINING POVERTY: INDIVIDUAL EXPLANATIONS (4) "The Lack of Human Capital"; (5) "The Lack of Entrepreneurial Skills"; (6) "The Growing Instability of the Family"; Part III EXPLAINING POVERTY: MOTIVATIONAL EXPLANATIONS ACCOUNTING FOR THE GROWTH OF THE UNDERCLASS (7) "Rational Explanations: The Liberal Version"; "; (8) "Rational Explanations: The Conservative Version"; (9) "Cultural Explanations"; Part IV EXPLAINING POVERTY: STRUCTURAL EXPLANATIONS (10) "The Barrier of Racial Discrimination"; (11) "The Economy I: The Lack of Jobs"; (12) "The Economy II: The Lack of High-Paying Jobs"; (13) "The Economy III: Stagnating Productivity and the Lack of High-Paying Jobs"; (14) "The View from the Left: Economic Exploitations and the Lack of Political Power"; Part V THE CHANGING VIEWS OF POVERTY IN AMERICA (15) "Changing Perceptions of the Causes of Poverty: A Summary"; (16) "Maybe Something Will Work after All: The Fight against PovetyRevisited"; Appendix: "The Controversy over the Government's Definition of Poverty", pp. 307-315; Notes, pp. 317-334; Index, pp. 335-339. Glossy wrappers illustrated with linear wallpaper patterning (tiny boxes) on entire front cover and with Black Title box at top third front cover for lettering in orange and white; small black band on lower third front cover for Author name lettering in smaller white letters. Soft 2 1/2" Dog-ear crease at top right corner of the "Contents" page (NOW virtually flat) and a single small black check mark at top left fourth page (p. 6) of first Chapter, else clean text: Tight binding (NO cracks); sharp corners (NO bumps or curls). NO rubbing wear; NO remainder marks; NO previous owner names. Essentially Clean text.

Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 002906

Bibliografische Details

• Titel: Poverty and the Underclass: Changing Perceptions of the Poor in America
• Verlag: New York University Press, New York and London
• Erscheinungsjahr: 1994
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN-10: 0814746616
• ISBN-13: 9780814746615
• Einband: Soft cover
• Auflage: 1st Edition
• Zustand: Fine

Über diesen Titel

Inhaltsangabe

Explains the failure—on both sides of the aisle—of the War on Poverty

The much-heralded War on Poverty has failed. The number of children living in poverty is steadily on the rise and an increasingly destructive underclass brutalizes urban neighborhoods. America's patience with the poor seems to have run out: even cities that have traditionally been havens for the homeless are arresting, harassing, and expelling their street people.

In this timely work, William Kelso analyzes how the persistence of poverty has resulted in a reversal of liberal and conservative positions during the last thirty years. While liberals in the 1960s hoped to eliminate the causes of poverty, today they increasingly seem resigned to merely treating its effects. The original liberal objective of giving the poor a helping hand by promoting equal opportunity has given way to a new agenda of entitlements and equal results. In contrast, conservatives who once suggested that trying to eliminate poverty was futile, now seek ways to eradicate the actual causes of poverty.

Poverty and the Underclass suggests that the arguments of both the left and right are misguided and offers new explanations for the persistence of poverty. Looking beyond the codewords that have come to obscure the debate—underclass, family values, the culture of poverty,—Kelso emphasizes that poverty is not a monolithic condition, but a vast and multidimensional problem.

During his Presidential campaign, Bill Clinton called for an overhaul of the welfare system and spoke of a new covenant to unite both the left and right in developing a common agenda for fighting poverty. In this urgent, landmark work, William Kelso merges conservative, radical, and liberal ideals to suggest how the intractable problem of poverty may be solved at long last by implementing the principles of this new covenant.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

William A. Kelso teaches political science at the University of Florida and is the author of American Democratic Theory: Pluralism and Its Critics.