ABSTRACT
Poverty has become one of the organising concepts for statements about ‘the social condition’ of rich and poor countries alike. There is a voluminous literature in the United States, the United Kingdom and all the English-speaking countries of the world. Whether examples are taken from books and reports on contemporary conditions (Block et al. 1987; Ellwood, 1988; Danziger and Weinberg, 1986; Mayer and Jencks, 1989; Patterson, 1981; George and Howards, 1991; Duncan, 1984; Harrington, 1984; Mack and Lansley, 1984; Piachaud, 1988; Atkinson, 1989; and Galbraith, 1992); historical reviews (Katz, 1986; Himmelfarb, 1984;); or specific statistical measures (Committee of Ways and Means, 1991, especially appendix I, pp. 1173–98; Social Security Administration, 1990; McGranahan, 1979) the overall testimony to the importance of the subject is impressive. In the English-speaking countries too there are traditions of inquiry and analysis which go back to the faltering promulgation of the early Poor Laws.
