“This superb book provides the most illuminating analysis of welfare and the welfare state to appear in decades. David Matthews brilliantly analyzes the contradictory and dialectic character of welfare programs under capitalism, as they provide limited services while continuing to exploit and stigmatize poor and working people. Such profound insights emerge partly from the author’s own experiences growing up in a family that depended on public welfare. The book concludes hopefully, as Matthews describes a transformed, post-capitalist welfare system based on local solidarity, mutual aid, and love.”
—Howard Waitzkin, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Health Sciences and Sociology, University of New Mexico