"Auletta began with a seemingly simple goal - to find out who, exactly, make up the poorest of the poor, and to trace the many paths that took them there. As he follows 250 harden members of the underclass, Auletta focuses on efforts to help them reconstruct their lives and find a functional place in mainstream society. Through the lives of the men and women he encounters, Auletta discovers the complex truths that have made hard-core poverty in America such an intractable problem."--BOOK JACKET.