Overview

This collection of documents contextualizes the ways in which Americans have addressed the evolving challenges of poverty throughout U.S. history. Each document is accompanied by an analysis that both summarizes its content and considers its impact. Poverty has always been a part of the fabric of American life, and this installment in the Documentary and Reference Guides series fills the gaps left by most educational treatments of the subject, beginning with an examination of poverty at the state and local levels as it was during the early 19th century. A federal plan for addressing poverty was not devised until Franklin Delano Roosevelt launched the New Deal in the 1930s. As these 70 chronologically arranged documents illustrate, the unfinished business of the New Deal, interrupted by World War II, culminated in new legislation during John F. Kennedy's New Frontier and Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty; progress, however, fell victim to the Vietnam War, ushering in decades of rollbacks under presidents of both parties. Noted scholar and librarian John R. Burch Jr. provides thorough coverage of these and contemporary events throughout which poverty has endured, including the Great Recession of 2008–2009, the minimum wage debate, and the Affordable Care Act and attempts to repeal it.

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9781440858499

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Reviews

The author's inclusion of historical alongside more current documents is part of what makes this text such an interesting read. The more recent documents and trends would be particularly helpful to those interested in current policy and social issues. I would recommend this book for its usefulness in uniting these documents into a historical and topical narrative. - ARBA This is a strong source of primary information for student research. General readers will find a firm grounding on which to form opinions about a timely subject. VERDICT Recommended for high school, undergraduate, and public libraries looking to rebuild their reference collections and support curricula in need of primary sources. - Library Journal

Author Information

John R. Burch Jr., PhD, is Library Director at the University of Tennessee at Martin and author of The Great Society and the War on Poverty, among other reference works.

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