
At each stage of their lives--from infant cribs to teen dropouts to welfare dependents to basement shelters for the elderly--the people of the underclass are shunned by the rest of the population, even by the working poor. The cycle is vicious: Underclass children get little...

When the acclaimed author of Where Is Nicaragua? went in search of America's growing underclass--the persistent poor--he discovered a frighteningly large segment of the population for whom our cherished notions of equal opportunity and freedom for all are nothing but a mockery...