The Undeserving Poor: America's Enduring Confrontation with Poverty: Fully Updated and Revised

by Michael B. Katz

First published in 1989, The Undeserving Poor was a critically acclaimed and enormously influential account of America's enduring debate about poverty. Taking stock of the last quarter century, Michael B. Katz's new edition of this classic is virtually a new book. As the first did, it will force all concerned Americans to reconsider the foundations of our policies toward the poor, especially in the wake of the Great Recession that began in 2008.
Katz highlights how throughout American history, the poor have been regarded as undeserving: people who do not deserve sympathy because they brought their poverty on themselves, either through laziness and immorality, or because they are culturally or mentally deficient. This long-dominant view sees poverty as a personal failure, serving to justify America's mean-spirited treatment of the poor. Katz reminds us, however, that there are other explanations of poverty besides personal failure. Poverty has been written about as a problem of place, of resources, of political economy, of power, and of market failure. Katz looks at each idea in turn, showing how they suggest more effective approaches to our struggle against poverty.
The Second Edition includes important new material. It now sheds light on the revival of the idea of culture in poverty research; the rehabilitation of Daniel Patrick Moynihan; the resurgent role of biology in discussions of the causes of poverty, such as in The Bell Curve; and the human rights movement's intensified focus on alleviating world poverty. It emphasizes the successes of the War on Poverty and Great Society, especially at the grassroots level. It is also the first book to chart the rise and fall of the "underclass" as a concept driving public policy.
A major revision of a landmark study, The Undeserving Poor helps readers to see poverty-and our efforts to combat it--in a new light.

Genres: Nonfiction, Poverty, Politics, Economics, History, Sociology, Social Justice

368 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A terrific history of the way poverty has been understood, and misunderstood, and addressed/ignored in the U.S. (and occasionally overseas) since the beginning of the twentieth century, with an episode on the War on Poverty and the subsequent, ongoing backlash. The story is a complex, multifaceted one, and this is not an easy book to read (though manageable for an inexpert reader--hello). To oversimplify, the core of the book is that poverty has been seen predominantly as a problem and a pathology of individuals, as the moral category "undeserving poor" (which keeps cropping up in different forms--even in Marx's lumpenproletariat) suggests. However, poverty is of course in large part a structural problem, one of forces and institutions beyond individual control. The book offers a survey of theories that explore and explain poverty, and a history of responses by governments, other private or public institutions, and poor people themselves. Particularly interesting to me were the successes (despite Reagan's glib claim it was lost--Reagan ushered in a disastrous era for the poor) of the War on Poverty, despite its very limited funding, because it granted some power to poor people themselves, who struggled hard to run their own institutions--there are some inspiring stories especially of African American women in this period. And despite the grim history of the success of right wing stories of the undeserving poor, grounded in prejudice not fact, Katz remains determinedly and impressively optimistic in his conclusion, citing incidents especially in South America of incidents where the poor have succeeded in transforming cities, with the occasional help of sympathetic governments, local or national.

[Ander P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very useful look and US social policy since the early 20th century. Gives a primer on the evolution of liberal and conservative policy, while lightly touching on grassroots organizing and socialist ideology.

5 stars for the chapter that debunks the Bell Curve ;)

[Frederic · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dated Sociology but interesting enough to suggest a look at current work by the author...

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exploration into America's political and philosophical engagements with poverty, focused primarily on poverty social policy since the 1960s.

The author explains how from the beginning there have been delineations between the "deserving" poor, like widows, the disabled or ill, or those who have undergone unfortunate circumstances in some other way, and the "undeserving" poor - those presumed to be poor because of some other reason, generally assumed to be their own indolence.

He explores the sociology of poverty, but primarily the public policy end of it - going in great detail about the policy decisions related to the War on Poverty and the conservative backlash to it, the emergence of the concept of the "underclass" and the end of that idea, and most recently, the appeal to a more market ideology in relation to handling poverty. Major philosophers and works are explored as well.

The author rightly speaks of the challenge behind the challenge: to understand what poverty is, where it comes from, and then to seek the best way forward in addressing it. Conservatives tend to focus on individual persons, as if poverty is generally the result of individual failure; liberals make much of places, as if poverty is a result of a toxic environment. He also identifies resources (poverty as lack of money and other assets), political economy (poverty as the unfortunate result of those who "lose" at capitalism), power (poverty as result of political powerlessness), and markets (poverty as lack of a viable market, or not using the market and human potential effectively). And there is also the pessmism - poverty as an ever-present problem, and thus one without solution.

More about the history of public policy than might be imagined, but still a good introduction to the state of poverty research and public policy, why it has gone the way it has, the stigmas and prejudices inherent throughout, and the reasons why those with power in America would rather not actually deal with the real issues behind poverty.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

What kind of problem is poverty? Katz showcases American thinkers/doers six definitions of the problem: persons, place, markets, political economy, power, and resources. This isn't the quickest read, but it is essential for folks concerned with economic hardship in the United States. Foundational.

[PatriceReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great review and analysis of the literature regarding the American understanding of poverty. I enjoyed every part of it!

[sabine · Rating 4 out of 5]

striking and useful, have to write a book report for 17.317 now

[Vince Darcangelo · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://ensuingchapters.com/2014/01/04...

It’s been a quarter-century since the first edition of this book was published. Some things have changed drastically: The first edition came out at the height of the Reagan-Bush era, whereas the new edition comes on the heels of major Democratic victories in 2012.

But some things haven’t changed: The cultural obsession of equating financial poverty with moral bankruptcy.

Katz does a wonderful job of exploring the evolution of blame-the-poor politics and the invention (and ongoing reinvention) of the underclass. It’s a slippery and interesting social history, and it brings to mind Foucault’s histories of mental illness and prisons.

One of the interesting takeaways for me is the human need to compartmentalize. There is a line drawn between the deserving and the undeserving poor. Women and children tend to occupy the first category, while men almost universally fall into the latter. Politically and culturally speaking, the line drawn between the two groups is solid and severe, with those on one side garnerng support and sympathy and the others disdain and even punishment.

The trouble is that the line, in reality rather than construct, is blurry.

America’s schizophrenic attitude toward poverty shouldn’t be surprising. It’s a country that went from agriculture to industry to technology, where the Roaring ’20s gave way to the Great Depression, which segued into an unprecedented era of prosperity. Where LBJ waged a failed War on Poverty, and his successors waged a failed War on Drugs, which has ultimately amounted to a war on the impoverished.

This is an excellent read for anyone with an interest in economics, politics or social history. It may not resolve any legislative debates, but it will lend the reader more thoughtful consideration of the topic.

[Carrie]

sociology

[Bill]

3.4 Martinie glasses

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic history of poverty in the U.S. over the last century. Katz knows the ins and outs of the problem of poverty, and he is very informative.