Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface -- Introduction -- pt. 1. The golden age of laissez-faire? : the 50s -- 1. The 1950s : limited government, limited affluence -- pt. 2. Wars on poverty : the 60s -- 2. Planning the war on poverty : fixing the poor or fixing the economy? -- 3. Evaluating the war on poverty : the conservatism of liberalism -- 4. Moynihan, the dissenters, and the racialization of poverty : a liberal turning point that did not turn -- 5. Statistics and theory of unemployment and poverty : lessons from the 60s and the postwar era -- pt. 3. Toward a war on the poor : the 70s and 80s -- 6. The politics of poverty and welfare in the 70s : from Nixon to Carter -- 7. Too much work ethic : one reason poverty rates stopped falling in the 70s, and the stories that were told about it -- 8. Cutting poverty or cutting welfare : conservatives attack liberalism -- 9. Reagan, Reaganomics, and the American poor, 1980-1992 -- pt. 4. The poor you will always have with you - if you don't do the right thing : 1993-present -- 10. Staying poor in the Clinton boom : welfare reform, the nearby labor force, and the limits of the work ethic -- 11. Bush and beyond : on solving and not solving poverty --

Appendix 1 : Unemployment, poverty, earnings, and household structure -- Appendix 2 : Groups often left out of antipoverty discussions in the 60s and today -- Notes -- Bibliographical essay -- Index.

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