Widely regarded as one of the classics of post-war historical writing, this book shows how central the role of poverty has been throughout the history of Europe. It ranges across the period from the first millennium to the present day, casting a fresh and revealing perspective on the actions of individuals, groups and nations, and on the underlying nature of the greatest social changes the continent has experienced.

For more than four decades, Hugh Segal has been one of the leading voices of progressive conservatism in Canada. A self-described Red Tory warrior who disdains "bootstrap" approaches to poverty, he has always promoted policies, especially a basic annual income, to help the most economically vulnerable. Why would a life-long Tory support something so radical? In this revealing memoir, Segal shares how his life and experiences brought him to this most unlikely of places, beginning with his childhood in a poor immigrant family in Montreal to his time as a chief of staff for Prime Minister Mulroney and to his more recent work as an advisor on a basic income pilot project for the Ontario Liberal government. This book is a passionate argument not only for why a basic annual income makes economic sense, but for why it is the right thing to do.

This is the first book-length study of the contributions of religious leaders to the War on Poverty, and it demonstrates their centrality to that effort, both in supporting OEO director Sargent Shriver through their public testimony and lobbying efforts, and in co-funding and sponsoring community action programs that realized the ideal of maximum feasible participation of the poor, one of the key tenets of the War on Poverty.

About 20% of children in the United States live in rural communities, with child poverty rates higher and geographic isolation from resources greater than in urban communities. Yet, there have been surprisingly few studies of children living in rural communities, especially poor rural communities. The Family Life Project helped fill this gap by using an epidemiological design to recruit and study a representative sample of every baby born to a mother who resided in one of six poor rural counties over a one year period, oversampling for poverty and African American. 1,292 children were followed from birth to 36 months of age. This study used a cumulative risk framework to examine the relation between social risk and children's executive functioning, language development, and behavioral competence at 36 months. Using both the Family Process Model of development and the Family Investment Model of development, observed parenting was examined as a mediator and/or moderator of this relationship. Results suggested that cumulative risk predicted all three major domains of child outcomes and that positive and negative parenting and maternal language complexity were mediators of these relations. Maternal positive parenting was found to be a buffer for the most risky families in predicting behavioral competence. In a final model using both family process and investment measures, there was evidence of mediation but with little evidence of the specificity of parenting for particular outcomes. Discussion focused the implications for possible intervention strategies that might be effective in maximizing the early development of these children.

This new edition of American Poverty in a New Era of Reform provides a comprehensive examination of the extent, causes, effects, and costs of American poverty nearly ten years after the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) in 1996. The author includes the most current available demographic, budget, evaluation, and program data to evaluate the impact of this sweeping legislation on federal and state policies, as well as on poverty populations. This revised edition takes into account the economic slowdown that took place in 2001 through 2003. It examines the state decisions about how to implement PRWORA, and how changes have affected the poverty population and overall welfare system. The author identifies the positive implications of welfare reform along with problems that must be addressed. New features for this edition include an appendix of Internet sources a state-by-state tables of poverty rates.

Latin America underwent two major transformations during the 2000s: the widespread election of left-leaning presidents (the so-called left turn) and the diffusion of conditional cash transfer programs (CCTs)-innovative social programs that award regular stipends to poor families on the condition that their children attend school. Combining cross-national quantitative research covering the entire region and in-depth case studies based on field research, Human Capital versus Basic Income: Ideology and Models of Anti-Poverty Programs in Latin America challenges the conventional wisdom that these two transformations were unrelated. In this book, author Fabian A. Borges demonstrates that this ideology greatly influenced both the adoption and design of CCTs. There were two distinct models of CCTs: a "human capital" model based on means-tested targeting and strict enforcement of program conditions, exemplified by the program launched by Mexico's right, and a more universalistic "basic income" model with more permissive enforcement of conditionality, exemplified by Brazil's program under Lula. These two models then spread across the region. Whereas right and center governments, with assistance from international financial institutions, enacted CCTs based on the human capital model, the left, with assistance from Brazil, enacted CCTs based on the basic income model. The existence of two distinct types of CCTs and their relation to ideology is supported by quantitative analyses covering the entire region and in-depth case studies based on field research in three countries. Left-wing governments operate CCTs that cover more people and spend more on those programs than their center or right-wing counterparts. Beyond coverage, a subsequent analysis of the 10 national programs adopted after Lula's embrace of CCTs confirms that program design-evaluated in terms of scope of the target population, strictness of conditionality enforcement, and stipend structure-is shaped by government ideology. This finding is then fleshed out through case studies of the political processes that culminated in the adoption of basic income CCTs by left-wing governments in Argentina and Bolivia and a human capital CCT by a centrist president in Costa Rica.

Nearly forty percent of humanity lives on an average of two dollars a day or less. If you've never had to survive on an income so small, it is hard to imagine. How would you put food on the table, afford a home, and educate your children? How would you handle emergencies and old age? Every day, more than a billion people around the world must answer these questions. "Portfolios of the Poor" is the first book to systematically explain how the poor find solutions to their everyday financial problems.

The authors conducted year-long interviews with impoverished villagers and slum dwellers in Bangladesh, India, and South Africa--records that track penny by penny how specific households manage their money. The stories of these families are often surprising and inspiring. Most poor households do not live hand to mouth, spending what they earn in a desperate bid to keep afloat. Instead, they employ financial tools, many linked to informal networks and family ties. They push money into savings for reserves, squeeze money out of creditors whenever possible, run sophisticated savings clubs, and use microfinancing wherever available. Their experiences reveal new methods to fight poverty and ways to envision the next generation of banks for the "bottom billion."

Indispensable for those in development studies, economics, and microfinance, "Portfolios of the Poor" will appeal to anyone interested in knowing more about poverty and what can be done about it.

The Politics of the Near offers a novel approach to social unrest in post-apartheid South Africa. Keeping the noise of demonstrations, barricades, and clashes with the police at a distance, this ethnography of a poor people's movement traces individual commitments and the mainsprings of mobilization in the ordinary social and intimate life of activists, their relatives, and other township residents. Tournadre's approach picks up on aspects of activists lives that are often neglected in the study of social movements that help us better understand the dynamics of protest and the attachment of activists to their organization and its cause. What Tournadre calls a "politics of the near" takes shape, through sometimes innocuous actions and beyond the separation between public and domestic spheres. By mapping the daily life of Black and low-income neighborhoods and the intimate domain where expectations and disappointments surface, The Politics of the Near offers a different perspective on the "rainbow nation"-a perspective more sensitive to the fact that, three decades after the end of apartheid, poverty and race are still as tightly interwoven as ever.

Issues of economic inequality and poverty have become increasingly central to public debate over the past fifty years. The literature on measuring economic inequality and poverty has vastly expanded, developing many new methods but also generating many controversies. Economic Inequality and Poverty provides a systematic treatment of the development of inequality and poverty, focusing on how income inequality and poverty measurements have evolved in recent decades and identifying approaches to resolving some of the methodological and factual conflicts. The books primary aim is to analyse the relationships between individuals and households distributions of economic variables. These relationships are crucial in understanding many economic phenomena. Kakwani and Son employ household surveys to illustrate the application of their framework, demonstrating its importance in drawing evidence-based policy conclusions.

This pioneering work gives an insight into the daily work of the national statistical institutions of the old command economies in their endeavour to meet the challenge of transition to a market-oriented system of labour statistics variables and indicators. Distinct from any other publication with statistics on Central and East European countries and the former Soviet Union, it reveals why and how new statistics are being collected and what still has to be done in order to make their national data compatible with the rest of the world. The authors discuss the problems involved in the measurement of employment (in both the state and the private sectors) and unemployment, the collection of reliable wage statistics, and the development of new economic classifications in line with those internationally recognized and adopted. They also make a number of recommendations on how to adapt ILO international standards in order to meet the above needs.

The problem of escalating population displacement demands global attention and country co-ordination. This book investigates the particular issue of development-induced displacement, whereby land is seized or restricted by the state for the purposes of development projects. Those displaced by these schemes often risk losses to their homes, livelihoods, food security, and socio-cultural support; for which they are rarely fully compensated. Bringing together 22 specialist researchers and practitioners from across the globe, this book provides a much-needed independent analysis of country frameworks for development-induced displacement spanning Asia, Africa, Central and South America. As global competition for land increases, public and private sector lenders are lightening their social safeguards, shifting the oversight for protecting the displaced to national law and regulations. This raises a central question: Do countries have effective ways of addressing the risks and lost opportunities for their people who are displaced? While many countries remain impervious to the problem, the book also shines a light on the few who are pioneering new legislation and strategies, intended to address questions such as: should the social costs to those displaced help determine whether a project meets the public interest and merits financing? Does the modern state need powers of eminent domain? How can country laws, systems, institutions and negotiations be reformed to protect citizens better against disempowering public and private sector development displacement? This book will interest those working on forced and voluntary migration, property and expropriation law, human rights, environmental and social impact assessment, internal and refugee displacement from conflicts, environment change, disasters and development.

Poverty in Britain is at post-war highs and - even with economic growth -is set to increase yet further. Food bank queues are growing, levels of severe deprivation have been rising, and increasing numbers of children are left with their most basic needs unmet. Based on exclusive access to the largest ever survey of poverty in the UK, and its predecessor surveys in the 1980s and 1990s, Stewart Lansley and Joanna Mack track changes in deprivation and paint a devastating picture of the reality of poverty today and its causes. Shattering the myth that poverty is the fault of the poor and a generous benefit system, they show that the blame lies with the massive social and economic upheaval that has shifted power from the workforce to corporations and swelled the ranks of the working poor, a group increasingly at the mercy of low-pay, zero-hour contracts and downward social mobility. The high levels of poverty in the UK are not ordained but can be traced directly to the political choices taken by successive governments. Lansley and Mack outline an alternative economic and social strategy that is both perfectly feasible and urgently necessary if we are to reverse the course of the last three decades. One of Listmuse's Greatest British Politics books

'Standard' employment relationships, with permanent contracts, regular hours, and decent pay, are under assault. Precarious work and unemployment are increasingly common, and concern is also growing about the expansion of informal work and the rise of 'modern slavery'. However, precarity and violence are in fact longstanding features of work for most of the world's population. Lamenting the 'loss' of secure, stable jobs often reflects a strikingly Eurocentric and historically myopic perspective. This book argues that standard employment relations have always co-existed with a plethora of different labour regimes. Highlighting the importance of the governance of irregular forms of labour the author draws together empirical, historical analyses of International Labour Organisation (ILO) policy towards forced labour, unemployment, and social protection for informal workers in sub-Saharan Africa. Archival research, extensive documentary research and interviews with key ILO staff are utilised to explore the critical role the organization's activities have often played in the development of mechanisms for governing irregular labour. Addressing the increasingly widespread and pressing practical debates about the politics of precarious labour in the world economy this book speaks to key debates in several disciplines, especially IPE, global governance, and labour studies. It will also be of interest to scholars working in development studies and critical political economy.

In 2011, Dr. Peter J. Hotez relocated to Houston to launch Baylor's National School of Tropical Medicine. He was shocked to discover that a number of neglected diseases often associated with developing countries were widespread in impoverished Texas communities. Despite the United States' economic prowess and first-world status, an estimated 12 million Americans living at the poverty level currently suffer from at least one neglected tropical disease, or NTD. Hotez concluded that the world's neglected diseases-which include tuberculosis, hookworm infection, lymphatic filariasis, Chagas disease, and leishmaniasis-are born first and foremost of extreme poverty. In this book, Hotez describes a new global paradigm known as "blue marble health," through which he asserts that poor people living in wealthy countries account for most of the world's poverty-related illness. He explores the current state of neglected diseases in such disparate countries as Mexico, South Korea, Argentina, Australia, the United States, Japan, and Nigeria. By crafting public policy and relying on global partnerships to control or eliminate some of the world's worst poverty-related illnesses, Hotez believes, it is possible to eliminate life-threatening disease while at the same time creating unprecedented opportunities for science and diplomacy. Clear, compassionate, and timely, Blue Marble Health is a must-read for leaders in global health, tropical medicine, and international development, along with anyone committed to helping the millions of people who are caught in the desperate cycle of poverty and disease.

In the 1880s, social reform leaders warned that the "unworthy" poor were taking charitable relief intended for the truly deserving. Armed with statistics and confused notions of evolution, these "scientific charity" reformers founded organizations intent on limiting access to relief by the most morally, biologically, and economically unfit. Brent Ruswick examines a prominent national organization for scientific social reform and poor relief in Indianapolis in order to understand how these new theories of poverty gave birth to new programs to assist the poor.

Why did some countries grow rich while others remained poor? Human history unfolded differently across the globe. The world is separated in to places of poverty and prosperity. Tracing the long arc of human history from hunter gatherer societies to the early twenty first century in an argument grounded in a deep understanding of geography, Andrew Brooks rejects popular explanations for the divergence of nations. This accessible and illuminating volume shows how the wealth of 'the West' and poverty of 'the rest' stem not from environmental factors or some unique European cultural, social or technological qualities, but from the expansion of colonialism and the rise of America. Brooks puts the case that international inequality was moulded by capitalist development over the last 500 years. After the Second World War, international aid projects failed to close the gap between 'developed' and 'developing' nations and millions remain impoverished. Rather than address the root causes of inequality, overseas development assistance exacerbate the problems of an uneven world by imposing crippling debts and destructive neoliberal policies on poor countries. But this flawed form of development is now coming to an end, as the emerging economies of Asia and Africa begin to assert themselves on the world stage. The End of Development provides a compelling account of how human history unfolded differently in varied regions of the world. Brooks argues that we must now seize the opportunity afforded by today's changing economic geography to transform attitudes towards inequality and to develop radical new approaches to addressing global poverty, as the alternative is to accept that impoverishment is somehow part of the natural order of things.

Down and Out in Paris and London was George Orwell’s first published book. It is at once a very personal account, and a vivid exposé of hard lives weighed down by poverty in France and England between the wars.

Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is introduced by writer Lara Feigel.

Towards the end of the 1920s, whilst living in Paris, George Orwell’s few remaining funds are stolen and he quickly falls into a life of severe poverty. Living hand to mouth, he shares squalid lodgings with Russian-born Boris and finds tedious and back-breaking work washing up in the bowels of Paris restaurant kitchens. On his return to England, he lives as a tramp, finding occasional shelter in often dangerous doss houses.

Can governments do anything right? Can they do anything at all about the problems of poverty and inequality? Despite the recent boom in the U.S. economy, many millions of Americans have been left behind. Poverty rates remain higher than in most other industrialized countries. Income inequality has increased sharply. Yet we are sometimes told that government cannot or should not do anything about it: either these problems are hopeless, or government action is inevitably wasteful and inefficient, or globalization has made governments impotent.
"What Government Can Do" argues, on the contrary, that federal, state, and local governments can and should do a great deal. Benjamin I. Page and James R. Simmons detail what programs have worked and how they can be improved, while introducing the general reader to the fundamentals of social insurance programs such as Social Security and Medicaid, tax structures, minimum wage laws, educational programs, and the concept of "basic needs." Through their discussions of high-profile campaign plans, proposals, successes, and failures, they have written a readable, optimistic, and clear-headed book on government and poverty. And they find that, contrary to popular belief, government policies already do, in fact, help alleviate poverty and economic inequality. Often these policies work far more effectively and efficiently than people realize, and in ways that enhance freedom rather than infringe on it. At the same time, Page and Simmons show how even more could be-and should be-accomplished.
The authors advocate many sweeping policy changes while acknowledging political obstacles (such as the power of money and organized interests in Americanpolitics) that may stand in the way. Yet even those who disagree with their recommendations will come away with a deepened understanding of how social and economic policies actually work. Exploring ideas often ignored in Beltway political discourse, "What Government Can Do" challenges all Americans to raise the level of public debate and improve our public policies.

Based on several years of fieldwork in Egypt and Turkey, Caring for the Poor tells the stories of charity providers and volunteers. The book also places their stories within the overall development of Islamic ethics. Muslim charity, Tugal argues, has interacted with Christian and secular Western ethics over the centuries, which themselves have a conflict-ridden and still evolving history. The overall arch that connects all of these distinct elements is (a combined and uneven) liberalization. Liberalization tends to transform care into a cold, calculating, and individualizing set of practices. Caring for the Poor meticulously documents this insidious process in Egypt and Turkey, while also drawing attention to its limits and contradictions (by using the American case to highlight the contested nature of liberalization even in its world leader). However, as historians have shown, charitable actors have intervened in decisive ways in the rise and demise of social formations. Tugal raises the possibility, especially through his study of two controversial Turkish organizations, that Islamic charity might appropriate elements of liberalism to shift the world in a post-liberal direction.

Poverty and Inclusion in Early Years Education will help practitioners to understand the experiences of young children who are living in poverty. It examines the potentially devastating impact of poverty and social exclusion on children's chances in later life, and considers recent policy and practice reforms which have recognised the critical role played by early years settings and practitioners in guaranteeing a secure foundation for children's future attainment. The book explores the historical, political and legal aspects of policy on poverty and social exclusion, before offering guidance on how practitioners can help to address the inequalities caused by poverty and break the cycle of deprivation. Chapters go on to address the practicalities of working with children, families and agencies to create an inclusive early years environment, and focus on issues including: developing effective partnerships with families collaborating with outside agencies encouraging awareness of different socio-economic backgrounds. With case studies, reflective questions and further reading included throughout to help the reader to apply the ideas to their own practice, the book will be an invaluable resource for early years practitioners, students, and all those wishing to promote social inclusion and tackle the impact of social exclusion and poverty in early years settings.

The world wanted South Africa’s true, liberated history – and the writing of it – to begin in 1994, but deep contradictions have quickly bubbled to the surface, revealing a society gripped in turmoil.

The results of all this have been, of course, paradoxical: a series of elections since 1994 seemed to confirm the ANC’s hold, both popular and legitimate, on power. Yet, simultaneously, South Africa has found itself with one of the world’s highest rates of protest and dissent, expressed both in the work-place and on township streets, in universities and technicons, clinics and central city squares. 16 August 2014 saw the lives of nearly three dozen platinum mineworkers end prematurely and violently. The premeditated “Marikana Massacre” demonstrated to the world how little Nelson Mandela’s ANC had changed South Africa’s core power relations, notwithstanding the dramatic, heroic victory over racist rule in 1994.

South Africa: The Present as History traces South African history from early days through the long European conquest and into two decades of democracy. The current socio-economic paradox – one that finds inequality, unemployment and poverty worsening since 1994 – reflect Mandela’s early 1990s concessions, choices which reduced the pursuit of genuine socio-economic and political transformation to the mere realisation of what can best be termed ‘low-intensity democracy’.

Analysing tensions exemplified by Marikana, the authors consider potential futures for an increasingly volatile society. Genuine liberatory possibilities could continue to be vanquished – but that is not the only possible results of today’s turmoil.