Losing Ground (10th Anniversary Edition): American Social Policy, 1950-1980

by Charles Murray

Overview

This classic book serves as a starting point for any serious discussion of welfare reform. Losing Ground argues that the ambitious social programs of the1960s and 1970s actually made matters worse for its supposed beneficiaries, the poor and minorities. Charles Murray startled readers by recommending that we abolish welfare reform, but his position launched a debate culminating in President Clinton's proposal “to end welfare as we know it.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786723775
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	08/04/2008
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	464
Sales rank:	361,533
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Charles Murray is the W. H. Brady Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. He came to national attention first in 1984 with Losing Ground and again more recently with Coming Apart. He lives with his wife in Burkittsville, Maryland.

What People are Saying About This

James S. Coleman

"A remarkable book. Future discussions of social policy cannot proceed without taking the arguments and evidence of this book into account."

Ken Auletta

"Charles Murray will infuriate people. But if they read carefully, he will also make them think."

Daniel B. Moskowitz

"Without bile and without rhetoric it lays out a stark truth that must be faced: Two decades of well-meaning programs to erase racism and poverty in the U.S. have left those at the very bottom of the ladder worse off than ever."

Richard Vigilante

"A great book."

Editorial Reviews

Murray, coauthor of The Bell Curve, argued that the social programs of the '60s and the '70s worsened the plight of the poor and minorities. This 10th anniversary issue includes a new introduction by the author. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Mr. Murray suffers from the besetting problem of the right - an inability to define any meaning for equality beyond equal opportunity. He does not reckon with the insistence of most Americans that social policy define some kind of community in which everyone has a place, regardless of his or her fortunes in the marketplace. Books of the Century, New York Times review March, 1986

John C. Marshall