Hands to Work

In this illuminating examination of our national welfare policy, award-winning veteran reporter and writer LynNell Hancock offers an intimate, heart-wrenching, and beautifully rendered portrait of three women and their families as they struggle to find their way through the new rules and regulations of the public assistance system.

Hands to Work takes us on a journey within the day-to-day struggles of these women, describing their hopes, regrets, and deepest dreams. Hancock demystifies contemporary misconceptions of poverty and illustrates how welfare policy and reform have been conceived, offering a thought-provoking look at the most divisive questions about America's neediest citizens.

LynNell Hancock is an assistant professor at the Columbia School of journalism, where she served as director of the Prudential Fellowship for Children and the News, a program dedicated to improving media coverage of children's issues. She has been a writer and editor at Newsweek, the New York Daily News, and the Village Voice, and now contributes to US. News & World Report and Parenting. She lives in Montclair, New Jersey.

“Attention-holding and articulate, this important book on how America treats residents who are ‘down and out’ is highly recommended.” — Library Journal

“An eloquent, affecting look at the faces behind the statistics.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Indelibly puts human faces and human hearts on all the grand pronouncements of social policy.” — Samuel G. Freedman, author of Small Victories

“A deeply important narrative...I challenge any citizen to read this book without a sense of shame and fury.” — Jonathan Kozol

“Provides a mesmerizing read for anyone who is curious about how welfare reform is working on the streets.” — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“Copies of Hancock’s book should be shoved, before the reauthorization vote, into the hands of every member of Congress.” — Mother Jones

“Incisive.” — Publishers Weekly

-