My original copy of The Other America with it's prolific empty highlighting and the vacuous notes of a college freshman of 50 years ago is long gone. Harrington sought to make poverty in the United States visible, and his observations have had a deep impact on our country, dramatically changing how we view the poor and the policies the country has followed to help them. The Other America won the Hillman Prize and an ALA Notable Books for Adults Award in 1962. Harrington was an American democratic socialist, writer, author of The Other America, political activist, political theorist, professor of political science, radio commentator and founding member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Harrington cast light on the lives of the poor, from farms to cities, and the social forces at work that reduced them to their plight. When first published in 1962, The Other America was greeted as an explosive work and became a motivating call for the war on poverty. This profoundly moving classic is still very relevant in modern America. This anniversary edition includes Michael Harrington’s essays on poverty from the 1970s and 80s as well as a new introduction by Harrington’s biographer, Maurice Isserman. In the fifty years since it was published, The Other America has been established as a groundbreaking sociological study.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |