Living on the Edge - by Mark Robert Rank (Paperback)

About the Book

This acclaimed book powerfully depicts a side of the welfare experience rarely seen, dispelling the myth that only an urban underclass -- the center of most policy debate -- struggles on welfare. Rank's juxtaposition of numbers and faces demonstrates that welfare recipients share much in common with the rest of the population.

Book Synopsis

This acclaimed book powerfully depicts a side of the welfare experience rarely seen, dispelling the myth that only an urban underclass--the center of most policy debate--struggles on welfare. Rank's juxtaposition of numbers and faces demonstrates that welfare recipients share much in common with the rest of the population.

From the Back Cover

Exploring the lives of a wide range of individuals and families, 'Living on the Edge' depicts a side of the welfare experience rarely seen and dispels the myth that only the urban underclass--the center of most policy debate--struggles on welfare. Rank's juxtaposition of numbers and faces alerts us to the fact that welfare recipients share much in common with the rest of the population. His frank analysis allows us to see beyond the common biases to the fundamental constraints and forces in our society that push so many people to life on the edge.

Review Quotes

After ten years of intensive study of public welfare programs and welfare recipients, Mark Robert Rank has written a thoughtful book about poor people and their lives.... Rank argues that we have got it just about backward again. It turns out, he says, that a lot of assumptions about welfare are simply wrong.-- "Chicago Tribune"

Rank analyzes the several ways of interpreting poverty and the need for welfare, and provides an account of his research on what poor people actually do to make ends meet and how they think about it.... Perhaps most poignant is that many of the people Rank spoke with work hard only to lose ground, yet maintain a strong belief in upward mobility and the American dream.-- "New York Times"

About the Author

Mark Robert Rank is a sociologist and associate professor in the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University, Saint Louis.