Wealth and Poverty in America: A Reader - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 063123179X ISBN 13: 9780631231790

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell, 2002

Synopsis

What does it mean to be poor in America at the dawn of the 21st century? For that matter, what does it mean to be rich? And how are the two related to each other? These apparently simple questions present enormous theoretical and empirical challenges to any student or social scientist. Wealth and Poverty in America is a collection of over 20 important essays on the complex relationship between the rich and poor in the United States. The authors include classical and contemporary thinkers on a wide variety of topics such as economic systems, the lifestyles of the rich and poor, and public policy. An editorial introduction and suggestions for further reading make this a useful and valuable source of information and analysis on the realities of the American rich and American poor.

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• Collects 23 of the most important essays by classic and contemporary thinkers on wealth and poverty in America.
  
• Covers economic systems, lifestyles of the rich and poor, and public policy.
  
• Includes editorial introduction and a further reading list.

About this title

From the Back Cover

The ideologies of equal opportunity and individual responsibility that dominate American culture tend to obscure the casual connections between poverty and wealth. Uncovering these connections is one of the purposes of this book.

Wealth and Poverty in America is an accessible collection of over 20 important essays on the complex relationship between the rich and poor in the United States. It first presents classic and contemporary selections that form theories of where wealth comes from and why wealth tends to concentrate in the hands of the few. This set of readings deals with wealth at a more systematic, rather than individual, level. Next, the book deals with the question of why certain individuals – based on position in the economy, or accident of birth – can expect to have greater or lesser chances of being rich (or poor), and how inequality gets reproduced. It goes on to offer a series of the most important classic and contemporary readings that focus on the life of the upper class and the daily experience of being poor in America. The final section opens up the question of what is possible in terms of the distribution of material rewards in America.

An editorial introduction and suggestions for further reading make this a valuable source of information and analysis on the realities of wealth and poverty in America.

About the Author

Dalton Conley is Associate Professor of Sociology and Director for the Center for Advanced Social Science Research at New York University. He is the author of Being Black, Living in the Red: Race, Wealth, and Social Policy in America (1999) and Honky (2000).

About this edition

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 063123179X
• ISBN 13: 9780631231790
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 312
• Editor: Conley Dalton