-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"With equal measure of compassion and dispassion, Jason DeParle confronts us inescapably with the reality of poverty in America. You cannot read this book and remain indifferent to those who are being left behind. This is one of the great works on social policy of this generation."

Daniel Schorr
Senior News Analyst
National Public Radio

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Jason DeParle's American Dream is a singular achievement. He interweaves a fascinating discussion of the politics of the welfare reform movement with a poignant portrayal of the lives of three women in one extended family. This is must reading for anyone concerned about the limitations of American social policy in addressing the problems of the urban poor."

William Julius Wilson
Author of The Truly Disadvantaged
Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor,
Harvard University

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Jason DeParle has written the best account of the effort to reform or end welfare, and told the most insightful story of how it has affected the mothers who have lived with it for so long. Convictions and prejudices, of the left and the right, all fall before this meticulously researched book; it will become a classic account of the lives of the American poor.''

Nathan Glazer
Professor of Sociology,
Harvard University

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"An essential and ugly American story richly reported and brilliantly rendered.''

Roger Wilkins

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"DeParle's exceptional reporting stretches back six generations and outlines how three members of this extended African American family have coped with the crises of urban poverty and demands of the welfare bureaucracy. It is an extraordinary work by an extraordinary journalist.''

Leon Dash
Author of Rosa Lee and When Children Have Children

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"In this beautifully written, heartfelt book, Jason DeParle has pulled off a stunning feat of journalistic storytelling. Equally at home in the West Wing as he is on the inner-city streets of Milwaukee, DeParle chronicles the story behind the most important piece of social policy to come along in decades. What he finds will surprise you. It did me.

Alex Kotlowitz
Author of There Are No Children Here