The New Victorians: Poverty, Politics, and Propaganda in Two Gilded Ages (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781565848399)

During the economic boom of the 1990s, arguments about the moral failings of the poor were used to pass welfare reforms heralded as the solution to a system that had failed everyone. Yet, as historian Stephen Pimpare demonstrates in this revealing social history, remarkably similar arguments were used to disastrous effect in campaigns against aid to the poor in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. In The New Victorians, Pimpare reveals the disturbing parallels between the anti-welfare propagandists of the nineteenth century and the elite actors and well-funded policy research organizations of today. Alarmingly, he shows how the New Victorians of today often invoke the rhetoric of their predecessors while ignoring the complete failure of nineteenth-century reforms. The New Victorians goes on to uncover the elite and grassroots resistance in the Gilded Age that paved the way for the counter-reforms of the Progressive Era, revealing urgent lessons toward renewing support for broader state defense of the poor today.

Author: Stephen Pimpare
ISBN-10: 156584839X
ISBN-13: 9781565848399
Publisher: New Press
Language: English
Published: 08/23/2004
Pages: 304
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.14lbs
Size: 8.42h x 5.72w x 1.14d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 08/09/2004