Gimme shelter : a social history of homelessness in contemporary America /

Barak's main argument is that the problem of homelessness in the US is linked to the emerging relations of global capitalism. Barak writes from the perspectives characteristic of critical criminology and victimology. Part 1 examines the problem of homelessness, its changing nature, the political economy of homelessness, housing policy, and the criminalization and victimization of the homeless. Part 2 critically evaluates government policies, the homeless movement, and the rights of the homeless, and suggests how to confront the problems of injustice and redistribution. Barak stresses the need for a new housing policy. He believes that the US policy-making apparatus is not truly democratic and just; policies for eliminating homelessness must address questions of power, justice, and democracy as they relate to social stratification in the US. Unlike M. H. Lang's Homelessness Amid Affluence (1989), this book goes beyond the insistence that homelessness is fundamentally a housing problem. It is well written and well worth reading. Upper-division undergraduates and above.-D. A. Chekki, University of Winnipeg

In this study of homelessness in the United States, Barak (criminology, Alabama State Univ.) defines the problem of homelessness--what it is, how it is changing, its economics, and crime and the homeless. He then covers ``confronting the problem''--providing short term shelter, resisting homelessness, rights of the homeless, and needed social changes. Barak views homelessness as a product of global economic changes that have affected U.S. economic conditions; he believes domestic policy must be fundamentally transformed to deal with these conditions. A strength of this book is the way Barak draws on different theories from criminology/victimology, Marxism, political economy, etc. His statistics and references to current literature are excellent, but his wide-ranging conclusions aren't always fully supported. Academic language and daunting sentences will limit the audience to scholars and the well educated. Similar but more readable are Peter Rossi's Down and Out in America ( LJ 11/1/89) and James D. Wright's Address Unknown (Aldine de Gruyter, 1989).-- Mary Jane Brustman, SUNY at Albany Libs. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.