Reviews
Abstract
ported costly and complex initiatives to integrate the physically and mentally handicapped into the society Congress and successive presidents have presided over enormous increases in public health programs for the poor, preg- nant women, and young children. One would be naive to believe that interest- group politics was irrelevant to these developments. Yet these programs were ultimately sustained because many Americans hold a conception of our national community in which the elderly, the handicapped, and the unskilled deserve an honorable place. It is significant that there is support across the political spectrum for the Earned Income Tax Credit and other programs designed to help individual families succeed in valued social roles. It remains to be seen whether such sup- port will be adequate to raise the taxes required to fund these programs. At least in part, the future of these programs depends on the skill and sensitivity with which their supporters can mobilize the moral energies of the American majority Advocates of social provision who will take on this task, and those interested in the social and institutional obstacles that such advocates must overcome, will learn much from Skocpol's valuable book. HAROLD POLLACK HARVARD UNIVERSITY JOHN F KENNEDY