ANAC copy 39088016271710 purchased with funds from the S. Dillon Ripley Endowment.
Contents:
From the cotton fields to the desert sands : living and leaving the delta life -- "The Mississippi of the west" : Jim Crow in Sin City -- "Bad luck and lousy people" : Black single mothers and the war on poverty -- "If it wasn't for you, I'd have shoes for my children" : welfare rights come to Las Vegas -- Storming Caesars Palace : poverty and power in Las Vegas -- Dragging Nevada kicking and screaming into the twentieth century -- "We can do it and do it better" : revitalizing a community from the bottom up -- Can welfare mothers do community economic development? : the triumphs and trials of Operation Life -- Maybe we were fighting history : the legacy of Operation Life
Summary:
"In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared war on poverty and dramatically expanded federal aid to America's most vulnerable citizens. But California governor Ronald Reagan soon issued a counter cry, declaring war on welfare and big government. Such criticism of welfare has now raged for four decades, convincing most Americans that Johnson's crusade was an expensive failure. In Storming Caesars Palace, historian Annelise Orleck turns that view on its head, chronicling the saga of welfare mothers in Las Vegas, Nevada, who defied all odds to build one of the country's most successful antipoverty programs." "Storming Caesars Palace captures the story of Operation Life's struggles and triumphs - a compelling illustration of what can be achieved when poor women chart their own course."--Jacket.
