Poverty and the Underclass: Changing Perceptions of the Poor in America

Explains the failure—on both sides of the aisle—of the War on Poverty

The much-heralded War on Poverty has failed. The number of children living in poverty is steadily on the rise and an increasingly destructive underclass brutalizes urban neighborhoods. America's patience with the poor seems to have run out: even cities that have traditionally been havens for the homeless are arresting, harassing, and expelling their street people.

In this timely work, William Kelso analyzes how the persi...