Book Review: They Say Cut Back, We Say Fight Back! Welfare Activism in an Era of Retrenchment
Abstract
WOXspwoxWork and Occupations0730-88841552-8464SAGE PublicationsSage CA: Los Angeles, CA10.1177/073088841245501410.1177_0730888412455014Book ReviewsBook Review: They Say Cut Back, We Say Fight Back! Welfare Activism in an Era of RetrenchmentDixonMarcDartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA82012393297299ReeseE. (2011). They Say Cut Back, We Say Fight Back! Welfare Activism in an Era of Retrenchment. New York, Russell Sage. pp. US$42.50 (cloth)© The Author(s) 20122012SAGE PublicationsThis book tells the important and until now mostly untold story of grassroots resistance to the implementation of welfare reform following the historic legislative overhaul of 1996. They Say Cut Back, We Say Fight Back! is the culmination of a decade of careful scholarship by Ellen Reese and is outstanding in several respects. For welfare state scholars steeped in literature on retrenchment and the punitive turn taken by many state Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs, the book provides a new look at the contested implementation of these policies on the ground, including instances when small, stigmatized groups won important changes. For social movement scholars, the book provides rich detail on the formation of grassroots coalitions and the conditions under which they succeed or fail. Finally, given the tumultuous politics that continue to rage in Reese’s two focal cases of California and