Reckoning with homelessness /

In this thoughtful volume, anthropologist Hopper (Columbia Univ.) takes stock of homelessness and those who have been studying it since the late 19th century, and presents in a single package his own important work on the issue, conducted for more than a quarter century. Hopper continues to push the envelope in the study of homelessness and, by extension, in the field of anthropology and on all fronts of the endeavor--theory, method, and politics. His work contains instances of brilliance as he offers his rich insight on the whole enterprise of poverty, homelessness, and contemporary citizenship. Readers learn about the social construction of homelessness and how it has been and continues to be historically and politically constituted; about some people's everyday experiences with poverty and destitution (and how it is "maneuvered" "handled," "managed" by individuals, by kinship, by "society"); intimately about the most troubling aspects of the anthropologist's trade; about the human struggle for survival and dignity; and about the contradictions and inconsistencies that course through it all. Hopper challenges himself, his discipline, our collective social world, and each one of us to go beyond moral witnessing to engaged advocacy and political action. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. All libraries. A. Waterston John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY

In this compelling volume, research scientist and lecturer Hopper (Kline Inst. for Psychiatric Research; Columbia Univ.) argues that "it is time for the ethnography of homelessness to extend itself into the realm of defensible reforms-without yielding our critical perspective or falling into the squirrel cage of system maintenance." Sanford Schram's Praxis for the Poor expressed a need for activist researchers in the tradition of Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward; Hopper here answers that call. He?? vividly details the history of homelessness in this country and offers his own acutely observed experiences as an "applied anthropologist" working closely with the homeless. A frequently cited authority on the subject, as well as a contributing author to Perspectives on Poverty, Hopper is well versed in public policy efforts and has distinctive views about their efficacy-or lack thereof. His impassioned arguments for reimagined efforts to address the plight of the homeless cannot be ignored. Recommended for research and special libraries and for larger public libraries.-Ellen D. Gilbert, Princeton, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.