Urban Poverty

This book is designed to help readers navigate through the vast and rapidly growing literature on poverty in urban America. The major themes, topics, debates, and issues are examined through an analysis of eight basic questions about the nature and problem of urban poverty.

This book offers a uniquely international perspective on the central debates concerning the social composition of the city, the role of the welfare state, and the potential policy interventions by the state or local governments.

This book examines mortality rates for African-Americans in selected U.S. urban areas in relation to both social class and the degree of black-white residential segregation. Mortality rates for African-American infants and young adults are shown to be especially high in certain highly-segregated areas. The findings will foster the development of the "epidemiology of American apartheid", a new field of research that has relevance to social and health policy. The intended audience includes sociologists (especially medical sociologists) who are likely to be familiar with segregation but not with its potential relevance to the health of African-Americans. Epidemiologists have recently turned to the study of racism and health, but epidemiologic studies have not dealt specifically with black-white segregation and health. Psychologists interested in racism are important potential collaborators with sociologists and epidemiologists in studies of the epidemiology of racial difference in health. Readers working in social policy and health policy areas, including urban issues, should also find relevant material. This work fits within the framework of Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal's thesis that the American creed of equality of opportunity remains unfulfilled.

To understand contemporary poverty in the United States, Michael Katz looks particularly at an old attitude: because many nineteenth-century reformers traced extreme poverty to certain forms of bad behavior, they tried to use public policy and philanthropy to improve the character of poor people, rather than to attack the structural causes of their misery. Showing how this misdiagnosis has afflicted today's welfare and educational systems, Katz, a major historian of urban poverty, draws on his own experiences to introduce each of four topics the welfare state, the underclass debate, urban school reform, and the strategies of survival used by the urban poor. As a concise overview of twenty-five years of writing on poverty, welfare, and public education, this is an exceptionally valuable and important book.... It will be read widely by social scientists, policy makers, and concerned citizens. Molly Ladd-Taylor, The Journal of American History A must reading for all social workers ... interested in the current debate about the role of government in social welfare. Katz's keen historical analysis informs us what our response to need has been and poses questions that we need to ask to avoid future errors. Edward J. Gumz, Families in Society

"Comprehensively and knowledgeably addresses uniquely modern dilemmas of urban places in the Middle East.... A very important volume". -- Janet L. Bauer, Trinity College, Hartford