It has been said that the poor will always be with us. But that does not mean we are obliged to ignore squalor. Concern about poverty stretches across national borders, from the third world to the street corners of Manhattan; whether one believes the poor are victims of their own shortcomings or of poor public policy, the impoverished cannot be ignored. This book collects a set of essays exploring the unavoidable issue of poverty. A broad array of scholars present studies and opinions about where the poor come from and what we can do to help them.