Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of Myth of the Welfare Queen: A Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist's Portrait of Women on the Line

Myth of the Welfare Queen: A Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist's Portrait of Women on the Line
Readnmachine avatar reviewed on + 1449 more book reviews


Nonjudgmental, well-written chronicle of a year in the lives of two Philadelphia women struggling to stay afloat in welfare's Paper Sea. Zucchino presents the grim reality of women trying to rear children with too little education, too little money, and too little support from the system, but he pointedly avoids any reference to the elephant in the living room -- the endless cycle of unplanned or poorly planned pregnancy and volatile domestic relationships that continue to exacerbate an already massive problem.