Description
Book SynopsisIn the middle of the twentieth century, liberal intellectuals and policymakers in the United States came to see poverty as a global problem. Applying Progressive era and Depression insights about the causes of poverty to the post-World War II challenges posed by the Cold War and decolonization, they developed new ideas about why poverty persisted. The problem, they argued, was that the poor at home and abroad were alienated from the enormous opportunities industrial capitalism provided. Left unsolved, that problem, they believed, would threaten world peace. In The Poverty of the World, Sheyda Jahanbani brings together the histories of US foreign relations and domestic politics to explain why, during a period of unprecedented affluence, Americans rediscovered poverty and supported major policy initiative to combat it. Revisiting a moment of triumph for American liberals in the 1940s, Jahanbani shows how the US''s newfound role as a global superpower prompted novel ideas among liberal th
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction "The World's Problem in Miniature": Global Poverty in the American Century Chapter 1 "This World-Wide Need": John Collier and the Origins of the Global War on Poverty Chapter 2 "Not Modern Men": Oscar Lewis's Theory of Global Poverty Chapter 3 "The Only War We Seek": Discovering World Poverty and Building an Empire of Affluence Chapter 4 "Challenge to Affluence": Promoting Poverty-Fighting as the National Purpose Chapter 5 "The United States Contains an Underdeveloped Nation": World Poverty Comes Home Chapter 6 "One Global War on Poverty": Building a Volunteer Army for the Empire of Affluence Chapter 7 "Living Poor": Representing the Global War on Poverty Conclusion Neither Peace nor Honor Won: Retreat in the Global War on Poverty Notes Selected Bibliography Index
