The Poverty of the World: Rediscovering the Poor at Home and Abroad, 1941-1968

In the mid-20th century, US liberal intellectuals and policymakers recognized poverty as a global issue, linking it to alienation from industrial capitalism. Sheyda Jahanbani's book "The Poverty of the World" explores how this led to the US's foreign aid programs and the War on Poverty, inspired by a sense of responsibility to deploy American knowledge and wealth as a beneficent force in the world.

Format: Hardback
Length: 352 pages
Publication date: 15 November 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

In the mid-twentieth century, liberal intellectuals and policymakers in the United States recognized poverty as a global issue. Drawing on insights from the Progressive era and the Depression regarding the causes of poverty, they developed new theories to explain why poverty persisted in the post-World War II era, particularly in the context of the Cold War and decolonization. The problem, they argued, was that the poor, both domestically and internationally, felt disconnected from the opportunities offered by industrial capitalism. If left unaddressed, they believed, this problem could threaten world peace.

In her book, "The Poverty of the World," Shayda Jahanbani explores the intersection of US foreign relations and domestic politics to explain why, during a period of unprecedented affluence, Americans rediscovered poverty and supported significant policy initiatives to combat it. Jahanbani revisits a moment of triumph for American liberals in the 1940s, when the United States assumed a global superpower role. This shift in power led to innovative ideas among liberal thinkers about addressing poverty and creating a sense of urgency to do so.

As Americans began to recognize the scope of the problem beyond their borders, they turned their attention inward, examining poverty in urban neighborhoods and rural communities within the United States. This led to Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty and his domestic peace corps, Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA). Jahanbani utilizes a wide range of archival material to reinterpret the lives and work of prominent liberal figures in postwar American social politics, including Oscar Lewis, John Kenneth Galbraith, Michael Harrington, and Sargent Shriver. Through their experiences and contributions, Jahanbani sheds light on the ways in which liberal thinkers and policymakers sought to address poverty and promote social justice in the United States and around the world.

Weight: 740g
Dimension: 165 x 245 x 29 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780199765911