Poverty is a fundamental and damaging feature of American culture that is ingrained in the
structures practices and values of our institutions. An adequate understanding of the roles
and functions of poverty requires the contributions of both the liberal arts and the social
sciences and cannot be shunted off to social work. Upon Whom We Depend challenges readers to
examine their own ideas beliefs and attitudes and to recognize how institutions can become
instruments for overcoming the social arrangement by which poverty is perpetuated.
