“Uncompromising and provocative….By mixing history, political interpretation and sociological analysis, Piven and Cloward provide the best explanation to date of our present situation…no future discussion of welfare can afford to ignore them.”–Peter Steinfels, The New York Times Book Review
1. Relief, Labor, and Civil Disorder: An Overview
Part I: Relief and the Great Depression
2. Economic Collapse, Mass Unemployment, and the Rise of Disorder
3. The New Deal and Relief
Part II: Relief and the Years of Stability: 1940–1960
4. Enforcing Low-Wage Work: Statutory Methods
5. Enforcing Low Wage Work: Administrative Methods
Part III: Relief and the Urban Crisis
6. The Welfare Explosion of the 1960s
7. Agricultural Modernization and Mass Unemployment
8. Migration and the Rise of Disorder in the Cities
9. The Great Society and Relief: Federal Intervention
10. The Great Society: Local Consequences
Part IV: Relief, Deindustrialization, and the War Against Labor: 1970–1990
11. Poor Relief and the Dramaturgy of Work
12. Poor Relief and Theories of the Welfare State
