American Dream

Bill Clinton s drive to end welfare sent 9 million women and children streaming from the rolls In this masterful work, New York Times reporter and two time Pulitzer Prize finalist Jason DeParle cuts between the mean streets of Milwaukee and the corridors of Washington to produce the definitive account As improbable as fiction, and equally fast paced, this classic of literary journalism has captured the acclaim of the Left and Right At the heart of the story are three cousins, inseparable at the start but launched on differing arcs Leaving welfare, Angie puts her heart in her work Jewell bets on an imprisoned man Opal guards a tragic secret that threatens her kids and her life DeParle traces back their family history six generations to slavery, and weaves poor people, politicians, reformers, and rogues into a spellbinding epic At times, the very idea of America seemed on trial we live in a country where anyone can make it, yet generation after generation some families don t Washington Post Riveting like a searing novel of urban realism Theodore Dreiser comes to Milwaukee Chicago Tribune Sweeping scope and dramatic detail worthy of Charles Dickens. Free Read [ American Dream ] Author [ Jason DeParle ] – kino-fada.fr It took me two weeks to read this book, which is a bit unusual I kept putting it down at first, not because it s bad, but because it was bothering me so much American Dream is a book about public policy, but it s told in a narrative fashion The author the poverty reporter for the New York Times, traces the lives of three young women living in Milwaukee during the 1990s during the end of the federal welfare program I ve previously read a very comprehensive policy book on anti poverty progr It took me two weeks to read this book, which is a bit unusual I kept putting it down at first, not because it s bad, but because it was bothering me so much American Dream is a book about public policy, but it s told in a narrative fashion The author the poverty reporter for the New York Times, traces the lives of three young women living in Milwaukee during the 1990s during the end of the federal welfare program I ve previously read a very comprehensive policy book on anti poverty programs in America America s Struggle Against Poverty in the 20th Century by James T Patterson so I was familiar with the history of these programs What was so captivating about thi...I have been a welfare worker in 1969 and 2007 This book is true to life.My assessment of the lying cheating aspect of welfare based on my experience as a worker is this Welfare is like gambling You can give incorrect information or omit to give some required bit of information If you are not caught, you will getmoney Welfare is usually below subsistence level If you are a mother and your children are suffering whatever your definition is , you might el...This book told the tale of Three Welfare Mothers right before welfare reform What I learned from this book is to not extrapolate from their tales what it means to be on welfare and a mother They are not characters, they are three individuals who don t represent anybody but themselves DeParle does a fantastic job at describing and humanizing three women who were demonized by congress and pundits the archetypes which led to welfare s upheaval But we must realize that they were not the normal This book told the tale of Three Welfare Mothers right before welfare reform What I learned from this book is to not extrapolate from their tales what it means to be on welfare and a mother They are not characters, they are three individuals who don t represent anybody but themselves DeParle does a fantastic job at describing and hum...This book about the effects on three Milwaukee families of Clinton s drive to radically alter welfare in the 1990s by making women work grew on me I think perhaps it could be better organized it flops around chronologically and topically, and the subject matter would be better served by somethinglinear The book focuses on three women, but there are enough relatives, ancestors, husbands, boyfriends, lovers, and crack addict buddies that clarity and simplicity in the narrative become This book about the effects on three Milwaukee families of Clinton s drive to radically alter welfare in the 1990s by making women work grew on me I think perhaps it could be better organized it flops around chronologically and topically, and the subject matter would be better served by somethinglinear The book focuses on three women, but there are enough relatives, ancestors, husbands, boyfriends, lovers, and crack addict buddies that clarity and simplicity in the narrative become very important It also seems to be inevitable in books written by middle class white men about poor black women that something will make you cringe For me, it was Angie had a pretty milk chocolate face and a fi...This was an amazing perspective on trying to understand poverty, and where it comes from I didn t walk away with a definitive answer, but definatelyof an understanding I read this after reading Nickel and Dimed they both gave me so much to think about.I picked this book off my reading list for Bryan Stevenson s Race, Poverty, Criminal Justice class I don t usually read non fiction, but I may make future exceptions for books recommended by Bryan Stevenson.Jason DeParle is a journalist who covered welfare for the NY Times The book describes the political events surrounding the passage of the welfare bill in the 1990s and follows its effect on three Black women who were receiving welfare at the time I found the political sections kind o I picked this book off my reading list for Bryan Stevenson s Race, Poverty, Criminal Justice class I don t usually read non fiction, but I may make future exceptions for books recommended by Bryan Stevenson.Jason DeParle is a journalist who covered welfare for the NY Times The book describes the political events surrounding the passage of the welfare bill in the 1990s and follows its effect on three Black women who were receiving welfare at the time I found the political sections kind of boring, but the descriptions and stories of the women really came to life and made up for that They reminded me of people I know and have known, and the book didn t shy away from showing the real weight of poverty on Black women in American cities I also really appreciated that the women s story started with their great grandparents and slavery and the sharecropping South While I go...This really was journalism at its best, weaving small scale personal stories into a broader narrative I opposed the W 2 welfare reform effort to eliminate welfare in Wisconsin, and I think this book justifies my opposition the program was obviously corrupt from the start I suspect privatization efforts often are and the purpose of the program was not ending poverty, just ending welfare Yet the book is pretty honest in also justifying the drive to end welfare as a possibly legitimate g This really ...Assigned in my Poli Sci Public Issues class Interesting account of welfare reform, taking in the big picture and the human scale You definately get a sense of what welfare is actually about, as compared to the demonizing ...Great book, insights into one of society s big challenges over a number of years with the same individuals and also the overviews of the government s role I had a hard time putting this one down Although not uplifting, it provides very good information and provided perspectives new to me.This reporter starting following these three families when Clinton started talking about ending welfare as we know it They had each been drawing cash aid in the beginning By the end of the story, none of them were He traces one family s roots back to a slave named Frank Caples He is the great great grandfather to two of the book s main characters After slavery he and his children and grand...

• English
• 20 May 2017
Jason DeParle
• Paperback
• 422 pages
• 0143034375
• Jason DeParle
• American Dream