For more than thirty years, students, scholars, and policymakers have relied on successive editions of Sar A. Levitan's Programs in Aid of the Poor. Now, in conjunction with the eighth edition of that classic work, coauthors Garth Mangum, Stephen Mangum, and Andrew Sum offer a brief but comprehensive overview of the facts of poverty in the United States, its underlying causes, and the reasons for its persistence in the richest nation in the world. Providing a wealth of data and cogent analysis, this book can be used along with Programs for additional background, or can stand on its own. "This volume demonstrates more starkly than its parent the persistence of poverty in this nation. Though some individuals and families manage to escape it, the phenomenon diminishes not at all—or at least very little . . . Having been sobered by this thought, the student may ponder what more might conceivably be done to reduce the incidence of that endemic economic and social disease."—from the Preface

We can win the fight against global poverty. Combining penetrating economic analysis with insightful theological reflection, this book sketches a comprehensive plan for increasing wealth and protecting stability at a national level.

The plight of the urban poor in Mexico has changed little since World War II, despite the country's impressive rate of economic growth. Susan Eckstein considers how market forces and state policies that were ostensibly designed to help the poor have served to maintain their poverty. She draws on intensive research in a center city slum, a squatter settlement, and a low-cost housing development. Originally published in 1977. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The Poverty of Privacy Rights makes a simple, controversial argument: Poor mothers in America have been deprived of the right to privacy. The U.S. Constitution is supposed to bestow rights equally. Yet the poor are subject to invasions of privacy that can be perceived as gross demonstrations of governmental power without limits. Courts have routinely upheld the constitutionality of privacy invasions on the poor, and legal scholars typically understand marginalized populations to have "weak versions" of the privacy rights everyone else enjoys. Khiara M. Bridges investigates poor mothers' experiences with the state—both when they receive public assistance and when they do not. Presenting a holistic view of just how the state intervenes in all facets of poor mothers' privacy, Bridges shows how the Constitution has not been interpreted to bestow these women with family, informational, and reproductive privacy rights. Bridges seeks to turn popular thinking on its head: Poor mothers' lack of privacy is not a function of their reliance on government assistance—rather it is a function of their not bearing any privacy rights in the first place. Until we disrupt the cultural narratives that equate poverty with immorality, poor mothers will continue to be denied this right.

The strengths and abilities children develop from infancy through adolescence are crucial for their physical, emotional, and cognitive growth, which in turn help them to achieve success in school and to become responsible, economically self-sufficient, and healthy adults. Capable, responsible, and healthy adults are clearly the foundation of a well-functioning and prosperous society, yet America's future is not as secure as it could be because millions of American children live in families with incomes below the poverty line. A wealth of evidence suggests that a lack of adequate economic resources for families with children compromises these children's ability to grow and achieve adult success, hurting them and the broader society. A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty reviews the research on linkages between child poverty and child well-being, and analyzes the poverty-reducing effects of major assistance programs directed at children and families. This report also provides policy and program recommendations for reducing the number of children living in poverty in the United States by half within 10 years.

Naomi Eisenstadt and Carey Oppenheim explore the radical changes in public attitudes and public policy concerning parents and parenting. Drawing on research and their extensive experience of working at senior levels of government, the authors challenge expectations about what parenting policy on its own can deliver. They argue convincingly that a more joined-up approach is needed to improve outcomes for children: both reducing child poverty and improving parental capacity by providing better support systems. This is vital reading for policy makers at central and local government level as well as those campaigning for the rights of children.

Examines the economic underworld of migrant farm workers, the aged, minority groups, and other economically underprivileged groups.