Abstract

The New Anti-Poverty Debate

The article discusses various books on anti-poverty debate. It states that "The Truly Disadvantaged" a recently published book by William Julius Wilson, a well known sociologist at the University of Chicago, takes a revisionist looks at the crisis of the black underclass. The book has been warmly praised and it quickly sold out at Washington bookstores. Wilson's modest success contrasts with the splash made by Charles Murray's book "Losing Ground" in early 1985. The book "Losing Ground," published at the high tide of President Ronald Reagan's rule, was the perfect example of a book as event. Many people had gibed that poverty won the War on Poverty, but Murray went one step further. He argued that the War on Poverty had worsened the plight of the poor. The social programs of 1960s, he said, encouraged unemployment, welfare dependency, out-of-wedlock marriages and violent crime.