The "Underclass" Debate : Views from History / Michael B. Katz.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Katz, M. B., editor.

Social Science Research Council (U.S.). Committee for Research on the Urban Underclass.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Urban policy--United States--History.

Urban policy.

African Americans--Economic conditions.

African Americans.

African Americans--Social conditions.

Urban poor--United States--History.

Urban poor.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (516 pages)

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Do ominous reports of an emerging "underclass" reveal an unprecedented crisis in American society? Or are social commentators simply rediscovering the tragedy of recurring urban poverty, as they seem to do every few decades? Although social scientists and members of the public make frequent assumptions about these questions, they have little information about the crucial differences between past and present. By providing a badly needed historical context, these essays reframe today's "underclass" debate. Realizing that labels of "social pathology" echo fruitless distinctions between the "deserving" and "undeserving" poor, the contributors focus not on individual and family behavior but on a complex set of processes that have been at work over a long period, degrading the inner cities and, inevitably, the nation as a whole. How do individuals among the urban poor manage to survive? How have they created a dissident "infrapolitics?" How have social relations within the urban ghettos changed? What has been the effect of industrial restructuring on poverty? Besides exploring these questions, the contributors discuss the influence of African traditions on the family patterns of African Americans, the origins of institutions that serve the urban poor, the reasons for the crisis in urban education, the achievements and limits of the War on Poverty, and the role of income transfers, earnings, and the contributions of family members in overcoming poverty. The message of the essays is clear: Americans will flourish or fail together.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

INTRODUCTION: The Urban "Underclass" as a Metaphor of Social Transformation / Katz, Michael B.

PART ONE: The Roots of Ghetto Poverty

CHAPTER 1: Southern Diaspora: Origins of the Northern "Underclass" / Jones, Jacqueline

CHAPTER 2: Blacks in the Urban North: The "Underclass Question" in Historical Perspective / Trotter, Joe William

PART TWO: The Transformation of America's Cities

CHAPTER 3: The Structures of Urban Poverty: The Reorganization of Space and Work in Three Periods of American History / Sugrue, Thomas J.

CHAPTER 4: Housing the "Underclass" / Bartelt, David W.

PART THREE: Families, Networks, and Opportunities

CHAPTER 5: The Ethnic Niche and the Structure of Opportunity: Immigrants and Minorities in New York City / Model, Suzanne

CHAPTER 6: The Emergence of "Underclass" Family Patterns, 1900-1940 / Neckerman, Kathryn M.

CHAPTER 7: Poverty and Family Composition since 1940 / Stern, Mark J.

CHAPTER 8: Social Science, Social Policy, and the Heritage of African-American Families / Miller, Andrew T.

PART FOUR: Politics, Institutions, and the State

CHAPTER 9: The Black Poor and the Politics of Opposition in a New South City, 1929-1970 / Kelley, Robin D. G.

CHAPTER 10: Nineteenth-Century Institutions: Dealing with the Urban "Underclass" / Monkkonen, Eric H.

CHAPTER 11: Urban Education and the "Truly Disadvantaged": The Historical Roots of the Contemporary Crisis, 1945-1990 / Kantor, Harvey / Brenzel, Barbara

CHAPTER 12: The State, the Movement, and the Urban Poor: The War on Poverty and Political Mobilization in the 19605 / Jackson, Thomas F.

CONCLUSION: Reframing the "Underclass" Debate / Katz, Michael B.

Contributors

Name Index

Subject Index

Notes:

"Sponsored by the Committee for Research on the Urban Underclass of the Social Science Research Council."

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

ISBN:

0-691-18854-8

OCLC:

1132229123