Saving Our Children from Poverty: What the United States Can Learn from France: What the United States Can Learn from France

by Barbara R. Bergmann

Book Overview

More than one in five American children live below the poverty line, a proportion that exceeds that of any other advanced nation. Although large numbers of Western European children live with single or unemployed parents, or belong to disadvantaged minorities, they are better shielded from severe deprivation by carefully designed public assistance programs. Saving Our Children from Poverty describes one of the most successful European systems of assistance...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0871541149
• ISBN13: 9780871541147
• Release Date: October 1996
• Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 1.03 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

About book's organization and information

I read Bergmann's book (and I have read a number of her essays and excerpts from her other texts) for a paper on comparative welfare policy of the US and France. I found the book well organized, concise to perfection, and incredibly informative. My only comment, although in theory it is not completely to Bergmann's fault, is that some of the French policies are so complex and layered that she wrestled with describing/explaining them well. That is to say, for instance, when she addressed welfare payment amounts, it seemed that she was either contradicting herself at points or just perhaps not sure herself about the accounting of the cash and other benefits. To sum this review up, then, I highly recommend the book as a resouce for students, faculty, or the person seeking to broaden his/her knowledge of French culture and social policy, but I also recommend that the reader bring a calculator to the reading and patience for the complex tabulations of benefits.