Poverty and Power: The Problem of Structural Inequality, Second Edition

This book totally dimensions the various aspects that impact poverty. It explains the social, cultural, economic, and political forces that ultimately affect poverty and the complicated interrelations of all the variables involved. This book is excellent for an undergraduate college student studying medicine, sociology, political science, psychology, etc as it gives much material and references for papers and dissertations. It is also excellent reading for everyone interested in why poverty exists.

Lots of good information and a very interesting perspective on the issue of poverty. There is better information to be found through outside research but this is a great introduction to the material and gives you a lens for understanding more complex arguments. The main drawback is that certain chapters display a significant bias lending little or no credence to current anti-poverty measures, even where they have worked.

Great introduction to the truth of our society. It's a pretty big wake up call to everyone that has seen the world through someone else's scam than their own eyes.

Great

for class

Great price! Cheaper than college bookstore and convenient!

Amazing book!

If you read only one book about poverty in America, it should be "Poverty and Power." I have been teaching a college course about poverty for 20 years, and this is the best all-around book I have seen on this subject. It is comprehensive and insightful and it sheds valuable light on why we have such a high level of poverty in this country and what we could be doing to more effectively reduce it.The main thrust of Royce's analysis is to examine and contrast the two main perspectives on poverty - what he calls the "individualistic perspective" and the "structural perspective." The individualistic theory is the dominant one in the U.S. and it argues that poverty is caused by individual weaknesses and failings. This tendency to blame the poor for their own situation is one of the main reasons why we do so much less to help the poor in this country than they do in other Western democracies.Royce devotes a number of chapters to describing and critiquing several popular versions of this individualistic theory, such as the idea that the poor are lazy and lack a sense of responsibility, or the notion that people are poor because they have failed to develop the skills necessary to succeed in a modern economy. He relentlessly and systematically demolishes these misleading explanations of poverty.Royce argues that a structural understanding of poverty gives us a much better explanation for why this problem persists. He identifies a number of flaws and shortcomings in the structure of our economy and our political system that are responsible for the high level of poverty in this country. For example, the persistent lack of adequate paying jobs virtually guarantees that some people will have to be poor - no matter how hard they try. And the poor funding of our social safety net - welfare, unemployment insurance, etc. - means that government policy is usually ineffective in reducing poverty. Royce then traces these structural problems to the mal-distribution of economic and political power in this country. The poor are poor in large part because they lack the economic power to bargain for higher wages and benefits, and the political power to enact legislation that would raise the minimum wage, make it easier to unionize, and create a more extensive social safety net.I will be using this book in my course and I think others who teach this topic would also greatly benefit from using it. It is provocative and highly readable. Beyond students, anyone interested in really understanding the causes and possible solutions to the problem of poverty in this country will find this a fascinating and invaluable book