From Prophecy to Charity: How to Help the Poor

by Lawrence M. Mead

Overview

Helping the poor is a question central to American life. Partially driven by America's Judeo-Christian heritage, Americans believe we possess enough wealth to provide some minimum basic standard of living for all and genuinely desire to help the least among us. We are the most generous nation on earth, spending hundreds of billions of dollars annually through private giving, corporate philanthropy, government aid, and other forms of charity. And yet, despite these efforts, international and domestic poverty persist. In From Prophecy to Charity: How to Help the Poor, Lawrence M. Mead critiques the philosophical presuppositions of past and current endeavors to alleviate poverty and provides a framework to guide future efforts based on what has been proven to actually help those in need: charity rooted in love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780844743806
Publisher:	American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Publication date:	11/15/2011
Series:	Values and Capitalism
Pages:	140
Sales rank:	740,943
Product dimensions:	4.50(w) x 6.40(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Lawrence M. Mead is a professor of politics and public policy at New York University. He is the author of the award-winning study Government Matters: Welfare Reform in Wisconsin (Princeton UniversityPress, 2005).

Table of Contents

List of Tables List of Acronyms Acknowledgments Introduction A Look Ahead Chapter 1: Poverty, Politics, and Programs Chapter 2: Why are People Poor? Chapter 3: Critical Perspectives Chapter 4: Welfare Reform Chapter 5: The Way Forward Chapter 6: Larger Questions Endnotes About the Author