The Undeserving Poor Americas Enduring Confrontation With Poverty Fully Updated

Oxford University Press Inc

Explore America's enduring confrontation with poverty through the lens of "The Undeserving Poor: America's Enduring Confrontation with Poverty: Fully Updated and Revised" by Michael B. Katz. This critically acclaimed and influential account has been thoroughly updated to reflect the last quarter century, offering a vital perspective, especially in the wake of the Great Recession. Katz meticulously examines the historical tendency to view the poor as undeserving, attributing their circumstances to personal failings like laziness or deficiency. This dominant perspective has long justified harsh policies toward the impoverished. However, Katz challenges this notion by presenting alternative explanations for poverty, including issues related to geography, resource distribution, political economy, power dynamics, and market failures. These alternative viewpoints suggest more effective strategies for combating poverty. The second edition incorporates significant new material, including the resurgence of cultural explanations in poverty research, the rehabilitation of Daniel Patrick Moynihan's ideas, the growing influence of biological factors (as seen in "The Bell Curve"), and the heightened focus on global poverty alleviation by the human rights movement. It also highlights the successes of the War on Poverty and the Great Society initiatives, particularly at the community level, and is the first book to analyze the rise and fall of the 'underclass' concept in public policy. This revised edition of a landmark study will help readers understand poverty and efforts to address it in a new light. Key Features: * A comprehensive revision of a seminal work on poverty in America. * Examines the historical and contemporary debate surrounding the concept of the 'undeserving poor'. * Explores various socioeconomic and political factors contributing to poverty. * Analyzes the evolution of public policy and discourse on poverty and social reform. Product Summary: The Undeserving Poor: America's Enduring Confrontation with Poverty by Michael B. Katz, published by Oxford University Press. This paperback edition, ISBN 9780199933952, features 368 pages in English and was released on 28/11/2013.