Social institutions and social change

"This volume presents a network of social power, indicating that theories inspired by C. Wright Mills are far more accurate views about power in America than those of Mills's opponents. Dr. Domhoff shows how and why coalitions within the power elite have involved themselves in such policy issues as the Social Security Act (1935) and the Employment Act (1946), and how the National Labor Relations Act (1935) could pass against the opposition of every major corporation. The book descri bes how experts worked closely with the power elite in shaping the plansfor a post-World War II world economic order, in good part realized during the past 30 years. Arguments are advanced that the fat cats who support the Democrats cannot be understood in terms of narrow self-interest, and that moderate conservatives dominated policy-making under Reagan."--Provided by publisher

Written for the general public as well as for specialists, this volume details some of the numerous dimensions of the homelessness issue: the rise in poverty; the decline of low-income housing: problems in counting the homeless; the role of familial estrangement; mental illness; substance abuse; and health status and behaviors. The authors conclude with discussions of rural versus urban homelessness, street children in Latin America, and homelessness in postindustrial societies.

This is a book about "bad guys" and their guns. But Wright and Rossi contend that for every suspected criminal who owns and abuses a firearm, a hundred or more average citizens own guns for sport, for recreation, for self protection, and for other reasons generally regarded as appropriate or legitimate. Armed and Considered Dangerous is the most ambitious survey ever undertaken of criminal acquisition, possession, and use of guns.