A collection of essays dealing with different aspects and the history of social services in the United States.

The other America /Jonathan Alter -- The changing face of poverty in America / William E. Spriggs -- Poverty Row / Jeffrey M. Jones -- Poverty is back! / Ezra Klein -- We don't need another war on poverty / Stephen Malanga -- How welfare reform worked / Kay S. Hymowitz -- Using carrots and sticks / Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill -- Is welfare working? / Jonathan Walters -- Unfinished business / Thomas Massaro -- Welfare aid isn't growing as economy drops off / Jason DeParle -- Reforming Medicaid / John C. Goodman and Devon M. Herrick -- Something of value / Gary Enos -- SCHIP and beyond / Jonathan Walters -- An immoral philosophy / Paul Krugman -- Sleepwalking toward DD-Day / George F. Will -- Boost for SCHIP / Jennifer Lubell -- Hungry in America / Trudy Lieberman -- Reflections on the Food Stamp Program / Bonny O'Neil -- Food stamps and obesity / Michele Ver Ploeg and Katherine Ralston -- Food stamps -- Hunger hysteria / Robert Rector -- 2008 Farm Act makes it easier for food assistance households to save / Margaret Andrews -- Improving food choices : can food stamps do more? / Joanne F. Guthrie, et al. -- Balancing nutrition, participation, and cost in the National School Lunch Program / Constance Newman, Katherine Ralston, and Annette Clauson -- Are shelters the answer to family homelessness? / Ralph da Costa Nunez and Laura M. Caruso -- As program moves poor to suburbs, tensions follow / Solomon Moore -- Disability cases last longer as backlog rises / Erik Eckholm -- Embracing the exiles -- Starting right / Joan Lombardi -- For Head Start, a marathon run / Linda Jacobson and Daniel Sheehan.