Description

Before recent headlines announced record numbers of poor, uninsured, and underemployed Americans, Mark Ranks research revealed the shocking truth that three-quarters of all Americans between the ages of 20 and 75 will spend a year of their lives in poverty. Two-thirds of Americans aged 20 to 65 will use a welfare program such as food stamps, and 40% of us will do so in five or more separate years. Rank likens American poverty to a game of musical chairs, in which there are ten players but only eight chairs. Scholars and politicians focus on the shortcomings of the two players left out when the music stops, but Rank challenges us to ask why the game is structured to produce losers in the first place. Debunking myths about poverty and establishing it as a mainstream condition experienced by a majority of Americans, Rank reconstructs the notion of poverty and shows why we all share the responsibility for making sure that there are enough seats--jobs, health care, education, housing--for all Americans when the music stops.

Reviews

"One Nation, Underprivileged , calls the social worker in community practice to act on a new definition of poverty that addresses the structural inequities in our economic system rather than the implied failure of individuals and families....This is a book for practitioners whose work will be renewed and affirmed by Rank's energy and his reminder of the power of coaltiions to affect political change. Equally, this book is a text that will give students in the social sciences direction as they consider their place as providers in confronting the tremendous momentum of America's capitalism and its impact on the poor....a passionate treatment of poverty that will benefit and inspire the practitioner and citizen activist alike."--Journal of Community Practice

"Amid the commercial babble of most messages heard in a land of plenty, Rank's thesis definitely deserves a higher profile." --St. Louis Post-Dispatch

An analytical yet passionate critique of the harsh economic reality of poverty, which will affect most of us during our lives --Z

"Rank stands out amid the rising chorus of authors who are decrying wage stagnation and widening income gap in that he tackles the very concept of poverty and its dimensions to demonstrate how and why its pervasiveness makes it a moral and political problem that affects everyone." --America, the National Catholic Weekly

"...an engaging book, nontechnical in its presentation of the facts, and written with great compassion for the least fortunate among us. This volume also brings together a large and complex literature on poverty and new empirical evidence on the dynamics of poverty." --Daniel T. Lichter, Ohio State University Journal of Marriage and Family

"Rank writes well, and his proposals reflect the state of the policy art on the more liberal end of the political spectrum. Amid all the political discourse about individual deficiencies, his focus on the structural causes of poverty is especially welcome."--Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare

"Deconstructing the dominant ideology and poverty, Rank insists that since the poor are poor for structural reasons, we should stop thinking about them as a tribe apart...Rank writes well, and his proposals reflect the state of the policy art on the more liberal end of the political spectrum. Amid all the political discourse about individual deficiencies, his focus on the structural causes of poverty is especially welcome."--Joel Blau, Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare

"An admirable and thoughtful book...Social Forces

"A vital book that reminds us of the greatest blind spot in American politics."--Gregg Easterbrook, The New Republic

"Rank's book is a must read for students and scholars studying the poverty problem. It is emotionally moving, intellectually stimulating and it inspires us to action." --International Journal of Social Welfare

Product Details

368 pages; 3 line illus.; 6-1/8 x 9-1/4; ISBN13: 978-0-19-510168-3ISBN10: 0-19-510168-5

About the Author(s)