《书目》(Booklist)书评

Epstein, a professor of social work, provides an insightful analysis of social welfare policy in the U.S. While tracing the evolution of contemporary welfare proposals, the author concludes that the scholarship of social welfare is inherently flawed. Since both liberal and conservative positions are mired in political ideology, the slanted evidence that supports and sustains them is necessarily tainted. Epstein lambastes both the conservatives' senseless desire to dismantle the entire welfare system and the liberals' foolish adherence to a program that offers a desperately inadequate amount of assistance to properly address widespread social ills. Instead, he argues that more objective research and greater expenditures are necessary to combat poverty and chronic unemployment effectively. A searing indictment of the politics of social welfare as well as an unflinching endorsement of an unfashionable and unpopular point of view. (Reviewed December 15, 1997)0299155900Margaret Flanagan