Seduced: how radical ideas on welfare, work, and family sent poor black Americans to hell.

This is a story of how measures intended as instruments of social improvement can cut a people off at their knees. Until the 1960s, government welfare programs were small efforts designed for young widows and seniors without other means of support. Payments were more likely to go to elderly white women than young black mothers. There were blacks on welfare, but relatively few families depended on the government in any open-ended fashion.

Welfare was a mean little business meant to get people by in a pinch. Mothers applying for checks had to let social workers inspect their homes to see if their lifestyles were "suitable," and to make sure they weren't living with ...