Economics, Bureaucracy, and Race: How Keynesians Misguided the War on Poverty

Judith Russell

"Russell's trenchant analysis is a refreshing antidote to the easy armchair analyses of nay sayers." — L. Randall Wray, Journal of Economic Issues

"Russell's analysis is a compelling one... she throws a penetrating light on a moment in the post-war history of the United States when... There was a real failure to try the possibilities of things." — Labor History

"Brilliantly dissects the innerworkings of the government's war on poverty and why it was doomed: the lack of will in the political class as well as active resistance to a jobs program, and the inadequate capacities of the state to handle such a program. Both failures are rooted in the insistence to see poverty as a result of individual flaws rather than economic structure.Must reading for all of us interested in why the richest and most powerful country in the world has poverty levels far higher than those of any of the developed countries." — Saskia Sassen, author of Losing Control? Sovereignty in an Age of Globalization

"This is an essential book for everyone concerned about the battle for full employment and the future of workers who toil at the bottom of the American wage hierarchy. Judith Russell writes with grace and clarity about the central issues of contemporary political economics as she guides the reader through the ideological mine fields of twentieth century anti-poverty policy." — William Kornblum, The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Related Subjects

• American Politics

Series

• Power, Conflict, and Democracy: American Politics Into the 21st Century

About the Author

Judith Russell received her Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University. Until 1999 she was assistant professor of political science at Barnard College. After serving as vice president for research and policy at the New York City Partnership, she has returned to teaching political science at Columbia University.

top of page