At the conclusion of the twentieth century, the US economy was booming, but the gap between the rich and poor widened significantly in the 1990s, poverty rates among women and children skyrocketed, and there was an unprecedented rise in familial homelessness.
The book "Struggling in the Land of Plenty" analyzes the appalling conditions under which homeless women and children live, the violence endemic to their lives, the role of the welfare state in perpetrating poverty, and their never-ending struggle for survival. Based on a four-year ethnographic study, Anne R. Roschelle examines how socially structured race, class, and gender inequality contributed to the rise in family homelessness and the devastating consequences for parents and their children.
Anne Roschelle is professor of sociology and chair of the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the State University of New York at New Paltz.