Critical Perspectives on Welfare and Poverty: A Review Essay of Regulating the Poor and Flat Broke.

The article presents critical perspectives on the books "Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare," by F.F. Piven and R. Cloward, and "Flat Broke: Women in the Age of Welfare Reform," by Sharon Hays. "Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare," is an important text due to its use of critical theory; and as a documentation of the social change efforts of academically based scholars. In "Flat Broke: Women in the Age of Welfare Reform," Hays' intent is to understand the contradictory cultural messages that are embedded within welfare reform--the conflicts between work and family, commitment to others and competitive individualism, self-sufficiency and dependency.