Research Paper on:
'The Poor' and Changing Attitudes

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
Bibliography lists 5 sources. SNPovert.doc Changing Attitudes Towards the Poor Written by Susan A. Nelson - May, 2001 For More Information On This  Paper Please Few subjects elicit as much scholarly interest or public passion as the issues relevant to social policy/ conditions. That social programs should attract so much  attention is not surprising considering they benefit tens of millions of Americas citizens, and virtually everyone rightly anticipates receiving benefits at some point in their lives. Since time immemorial there  have been the "haves" and the "have nots", and over the years a number of socially conscious men and women have taken up the cause to right a myriad of  social wrongs, and/or bring the issue to public attention. Looking backwards, one can see that United States history is filled with battles large and small over social policy, and  not surprisingly one of these has been (and continues to be), against the inequities inherent in poverty. This essay examines the attitudes of Jacob Riis, Erskine Caldwell, Michael Katz  and Michael Harrington germane to poverty and those who are compelled to live in its unrelenting grip. As Americas first photojournalist, Danish-born  Jacob Riis (1849-1914) was one such man and he wrote of his times, first for a renowned city newspaper (The New York Evening Sun), and then later in his books.  Riis captured the material conditions of the poor and the homeless with a sympathetic eye, and his photographs continue to be among the most widely circulated and reproduced in the  history of the medium. They provided dramatic visual commentary on the tenements, sweatshops and street life of the citys poor, especially in immigrant neighborhoods. However, his writing often evinced far