ABSTRACT
The “American welfare state” is a subject often discussed but rarely described. Our images of it are all too often shaped by individuals promoting one political cause or another, leaving us with a distorted understanding of this important topic. Indeed, the biggest challenge anyone faces in discussing the social safety net created to support the nation’s poor is the very political nature of the subject. It is extremely diffi cult to talk about anti-poverty programs objectively, because these policies speak to the very core of the understanding of who we are as a nation. In this book, I try very hard to paint as objective a picture as possible, since I hope this little volume will be seen as a useful resource by people across the political spectrum.
