Assault on Social Policy

William Roth is a Vincent O'Leary Professor Emeritus at the State University of New York at Albany, where he established and directed the Center for Computing and Disability. He has published a memoir, Movement: A Memoir of Disability, Cancer, and the Holocaust, among other books. Susan J. Peters is associate professor emeritus at Michigan State University. Among her publications, her book Inclusive Education: Achieving Education for All by Including Those with Disabilities and Special Education Needs has been translated into twelve languages.

The Assault on Social Policy depicts how the welfare state has succumbed to the private sector and is being increasingly dismantled by capitalism and return-on-investment principles. When such issues of poverty, health, disabilities, school failure, and immigration are juxtaposed against this backdrop, penetrating analyses of root causes emerge. -- Katharine Briar-Lawson, dean, School of Social Welfare, State University of New York, Albany This book confronts the reader with the possibilities, illusions, and limits of social policy, forcing us to choose for whom and for what. -- Henry M. Levin, Teachers College, Columbia University The Assault on Social Policy is even more relevant today, in its second edition, than it was ten years ago. In the first edition, William Roth investigated poverty, welfare, health, the social security system, and disability in children. I was impressed then, and I am impressed now by his analysis of economic politics, the role of corporations in shaping public life, the media, and the globalization of our economic policies. Roth and Susan J. Peters elevate the debate regarding social policy at the present critical historical hour. In my view, they have written an impressive book that should be read by all members of Congress and anyone who is concerned with the well-being of our basic democratic institutions. -- Bernie Sanders, Independent United States Senator, Vermont

• Foreword by Senator Bernie Sanders Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Policy 2. Corporations 3. Poverty 4. Welfare 5. Disability 6. Social Security 7. Health 8. Children 9. Education 10. Outsiders 11. Democratic Change Notes Index