"When this groundbreaking work was first published in 1971, it dramatically revised our understanding of the welfare system and its hidden role within the larger socioeconomic framework of the United States. Now the debate over welfare has grown more volatile than ever, and Regulating the Poor has been substantially updated to make it as relevant to the 1990s as it was to the 1960s and 1970s. Marshaling a vast array of research, Frances Fox Piven and Richard A Cloward persuasively demonstrate how public relief has been used to avert civil chaos during economic downturns and to exert pressure on the work force during periods of stability. Their analysis ranges from the early history of poor relief through the inception of welfare during the Great Depression to its massive erosion during the Reagan and Bush years. The authors provide a conceptual framework that sharply illuminates the problems current and future administrations will encounter as they attempt to rethink the welfare system. Admirably specific yet vast in its implications, Regulating the Poor is indispensable reading for anyone who cares about the American social contract."--Back cover.

"What do the American Revolution, the abolitionist movement, the labor movement, and the Vietnam antiwar movement have in common? These are examples of the profound moments in American history when ordinary Americans collectively and persuasively told the government ENOUGH! Challenging Authority argues that ordinary people exercise exrtodinary political courage and power in American politics when, frustrated by politics as usual, they rise up in anger and hope, and defy the authorities and the status quo rules that ordinarily govern their daily lives. By doing so, they disrupt the workings of important institutions and become a force in American politics." From the bookjacket.

Frances Fox Piven, one of the country's most celebrated social scientists, raises questions others have not. She examines the ways the war on terror served to shore up the Bush administration's political base and analyzes the manner in which flag-waving politicians used the emotional fog of war to further their regressive social and economic agendas. Always in the past governments that made war sooner or later tried to reward their peoples for the blood and wealth they were forced to sacrifice. During World War II, tax rates on the wealthy rose to 90 percent; toward the end of the Vietnam War, eighteen-year-olds were given the right to vote. In this war, taxes on the rich have been slashed, and democratic rights are being rolled back. Even veteran's benefits have been sharply reduced. The War at Home makes sense of these developments by putting the current domestic fallout of war in the context of history - and by turning an unsentimental eye on the domestic motivations of American militarism.

"Piven has embodied the best of American democracy."-- The Nation Frances Fox Piven reminds us why we must understand the labor, civil-rights, and anti-imperialist struggles of the Depression era if we are going to advance the struggles of the present. Frances Fox Piven is the author of many important books.