Patterson...adds a useful part to the complex puzzle of fluctuating interrelationships between perceptions and widescale cyclical and structural poverty. In the process, he debunks much of the mythology and stereotyping of poor people, especially ethnic poor and the culture of poverty thesis...Well-written, copiously documented.
-- Joseph F. Wilson American Political Science Review

[Patterson's] perspective on poverty continues to be an influential one in the debate about which policies help and which hurt the poor...Readers will be reminded of many things they had forgotten, will learn some things they never knew, and will be provoked to new questions.
-- Herbert Stein Fortune

A splendid introduction to and review of the attitudes in the United States toward the poor and of efforts to ameliorate their condition...Patterson treats his subject with verve, energy, and considerable style...No one with any interest in the subject can afford to ignore it.
-- Daniel J. Leab Political Science Quarterly

A rich and complex book [that will] set high standards for future work.
-- Julie Roy Jeffrey Journal of Social History