Robert Halpern is a professor at the Erikson Institute for Advanced Study in Child Development affiliated with
Loyola University, Chicago.
Review
"A tour de force. Halpern has been able to tell the story, expose the myths, explain the dilemmas, and
interpret future directions-all in a modest, very readable style. This book is a scholarly analysis of social policy,
and as current as the daily newspaper."
-- Carol H. Meyer, Columbia University
Columbia University Press Website
February, 2000
Summary
Neighborhood-based initiatives - ranging from settlement houses in the nineteenth century to the Community Action
and Model Cities program of the Great Society to the Empowerment and Enterprise Zones of the 1990s - have been
called on to help solve a variety of poverty-related problems. This book examines the history of these initiatives.
