The war against the poor : the underclass and antipoverty policy / Herbert J. Gans.
By: Gans, Herbert J
.
Material type: 
BookPublisher: New York : Basic Books, 1995Description: xii, 195 p. ; 21 cm + pbk.ISBN: 0465019919 ; 0465019900 .Subject(s): Poor -- United States | Public welfare -- United States | Economic assistance, Domestic -- United StatesDDC classification: 362.580973 | Item type | Current library | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Lending | MTU Bishopstown Library Lending | 362.580973 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 00085875 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
In his withering dissection of the origins and misuse of the term "underclass" to stereotype and stigmatize the poor, Herbert J. Gans shows how this ubiquitous label has relegated a wide variety of people--welfare recipients, the working poor, teenage mothers, drug addicts, the homeless, and others--to a single condemned class, feared and despised by the rest of society. Probing the deep psychological, social, and political reasons why Americans seek to indict millions of poor citizens as "undeserving," Gans calls for a cease-fire in the undeclared war against the poor. He concludes with a set of innovative, job-centered policy proposals and a multifaceted educational plan to stop the endless flow of new recruits into America's untouchable caste.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 149-186) and indexes.
Introduction -- Labeling the poor -- The invention of the underclass label -- The dangers of "underclass" and other labels -- The undeservingness of the poor -- Policies against poverty and undeservingness -- Joblessness and antipoverty policy in the twenty-first century.
Author notes provided by Syndetics
Herbert Gans is a German-born American sociologist who was educated at the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania. Active in urban planning and housing at the beginning of his career, he taught planning and sociology at Columbia Teachers College and subsequently at Columbia University. He is best known for his work on American communities, including The Urban Villagers (1962), a study of Boston's West End and The Levittowners (1967). He has focused much of his research on the American middle class.(Bowker Author Biography)