Families in Peril: An Agenda for Social Change (W.E.B. Du Bois Lectures) [Paperback]

Marian Wright Edelman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This book grew out of the 1986 W.E.B. DuBois Lectures given by Edelman, head of the Children's Defense Fund. Edelman emphasizes the abysmal situation of poor families and children, especially (but not only) black families in America, the national scope of the problem, and the mutuality of interest that calls for a solution. She believes strongly in the positive role of goverment policy vis a vis social change, the importance of fact finding, the necessity of understanding and working with manageable segments of the problem to effect and sustain immediate and long-term efforts essential to break the generational circle of povertyto ensure for America that all our children are healthy, educated, productive, and compassionate. Reasoned, practical, intensely earnest, this is highly recommended. Suzanne W. Wood, SUNY Agricultural & Technical Coll. Lib., Alfred
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

A book that radiates passionate concern for the millions of children who have been shunted aside in the current prosperity and whose plight has only lately begun to receive political and journalistic attention...Families in Peril is a powerful and necessary document.
--Jonathan Yardley (Washington Post )

A graphic and eloquent documentation of how the hopes and accomplishments of the 60s were undermined by the inflation of the 70s, and today are virtually destroyed as a seemingly indifferent society tolerates a growing class of permanently impoverished families. (Kirkus Reviews )

This is a small, readable book with a large, urgent message--one that needs and deserves all the readers and attention it can get.
--Marilyn Gardner (Christian Science Monitor )

A leading advocate for young people...Edelman has ensured that even though the young cannot vote or make campaign contributions, they are not ignored in Washington...Senator Edward Kennedy described Edelman as the '101st Senator on children's issues...She has real power in Congress and uses it brilliantly.'
--Nancy Traver (Time )

This book constitutes the most thorough and powerful presentation on behalf of poor children that I have ever read. It has the substance and rationale to awaken the national consciousness and should become a powerful influence on the thinking of Americans and their political leaders.
--Harold Howe II

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (January 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674292294
• ISBN-13: 978-0674292291
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,150,571 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Marian Wright Edelman is the founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund. She is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours. She is the winner of many awards for her work, including a MacArthur Fellowship, the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Award, a Heinz Award, and a Niebuhr Award. In 2000, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award for her writings. Edelman is a graduate of Spelman College and Yale Law School. She and her husband live in Washington, D.C., and have three children and four grandchildren.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A THOUGHT-PROVOKING SERIES OF PROPOSALS, December 2, 2010

By 

Steven H. Propp (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Families in Peril: An Agenda for Social Change (W.E.B. Du Bois Lectures) (Paperback)

Marian Wright Edelman (born 1939) is an American activist for the rights of children. She is president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund.

She writes in the Preface to this 1987 book, "This book describes the overall and comparative status of black and white children and families in America; the unacceptable human and public costs that result from widespread child and family poverty; our nation's failure to invest adequately and preventively in all our young---black and white, poor and middle class alike; the historical role of government in bolstering families---a tradition inadequately extended to our poorest and minority families; and the strong black tradition of self-help in a society unwilling to open doors for blacks as it did for others. I will explain why we need greater policy emphasis on preventing the poverty that makes children our poorest Americans and that threatens to produce what some label a permanent 'underclass'; call for immediate, comprehensive national campaigns to prevent teenage pregnancy, infant mortality, and early childhood deprivation as a means of long-term deficit reduction as well as child-survival strategies; and outline the need for and ingredients of more effective leadership at all levels of American society if we are to redirect misguided national priorities and remove the economic and social barriers that cripple millions of children and families and rob America of vitally needed human resources for the twenty-first century."

Here are some quotations from the book:

"We believe that the best way to help poor black children is to show that white children are similarly affected." (Pg. ix)
"It is important to identify why the proportion of out-of-wedlock teen births is rising. The cause among black teenagers is a drop in marriage rates, not an increase in birth rates." (Pg. 5)
"It is a problem because we no longer live in an America in which eighteen- and nineteen-year old men can earn enough to support a family... Meanwhile, young men, especially young black men, are increasingly unable to fulfill a traditional role as breadwinner and are less willing to accept their responsibilities as fathers." (Pg. 57)
"(I)t is necessary to struggle constantly to define and package this vision in small, actionable bites. A good children's issue, like any issue, must not only be simple but winnable." (Pg. 104)

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars gift, January 23, 2010

By 

Old Turtle (West Coast, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Families in Peril: An Agenda for Social Change (W.E.B. Du Bois Lectures) (Paperback)

Gave the book as a gift and the recipient was very happy to receive it.