Cycles of Deprivation and the Underclass Debate

In the mid-1960s, liberal scholars forcefully and candidly discussed the rise of social dislocations in the inner city and effectively challenged conservative arguments regarding the culture and behavior of the ghetto underclass. This article attempts to explain why the liberal perspective on the ghetto underclass has now receded into the background and why the conservative perspective enjoys wide and increasing currency. A suggestion is made as to how the liberal perspective might be refocused to regain its influence and thereby provide a more balanced intellectual discussion of why the problems in the inner city sharply increased when they did and in the way that they did.