Ebook: Regulating the poor: the functions of public welfare

Piven and Cloward have updated their classic work on the history and function of welfare to cover the American welfare state's massive erosion during the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton years. The authors present a boldly comprehensive, brilliant new theory to explain the comparative underdevelopment of the U.S. welfare state among advanced industrial nations. Their conceptual framework promises to shape the debate within current and future administrations as they attempt to rethink the welfare system and its role in American society. "Uncompromising and provocative. By mixing history, political interpretation and sociological analysis, Piven and Cloward provide the best explanation to date of our present situation.no future discussion of welfare can afford to ignore them." 'Peter Steinfels, The New York Times Book Review.;Relief, labor, and civil disorder: an overview -- Economic collapse, mass unemployment, and the rise of disorder -- New Deal and relief -- Enforcing low-wage work: statutory methods -- Enforcing low-wage work: administrative methods -- Welfare explosion of the 1960's -- Agricultural modernization and mass unemployment -- Migration and the rise of disorder in the cities -- Great Society and relief: federal intervention -- Great Society and relief: local consequences -- Poor relief and the dramaturgy of work -- Poor relief and theories of the welfare state.