576 - Thematic Session. Legacies of the War on Poverty: 50 Years Later

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Abstract

President Lyndon B. Johnson launched the War on Poverty in 1964. Historical and contemporaneous accounts typically portray the War on Poverty as a costly experiment that failed. Drawing from fifty years of empirical evidence, the nation’s leading poverty researchers show that this popular view is too simplistic and document many ways that War on Poverty programs improved the educational attainment, incomes and health of the poor and the elderly. Legacies of the War on Poverty, edited by Martha J. Bailey and Sheldon Danziger, analyzes the era’s successful human capital programs and documents the evolution of the safety net for families with children and for the elderly. At a time of high unemployment and wage stagnation, new lessons emerge on what more can be done to eliminate poverty in America.

Sub Unit

• Thematic Sessions

Session Organizer

• Sheldon Danziger, Russell Sage Foundation

Presider

• Sheldon Danziger, Russell Sage Foundation

Individual Presentations

• The War on Poverty and the Evolution of the Safety Net - Sheldon Danziger, Russell Sage Foundation

• The Social Safety New for the Elderly - Kathleen McGarry, University of California-Los Angeles

• The War on Poverty's Workforce Development Programs: Going, Going, Gone? - Harry Holzer, Georgetown University

Discussant

• David B. Grusky, Stanford University