Alvin Schorr book

Contact: Judith Bailey, 216-368-4442, jcb4@po.cwru.edu

Posted 7/29/97

SOCIAL REFORMER'S MEMOIR ILLUMINES LAST HALF-CENTURY OF AMERICAN SOCIAL POLICY

CLEVELAND -- Welfare reform abandons all vestiges of community and transforms America "into a winner-take-all and, more gravely, a loser-lose-all society," writes social reformer Alvin L. Schorr in his new book, Passion and Policy, a memoir that recounts his lifelong efforts to shape more humane social policies for America.

In a career spanning five decades, Schorr, 76, has worked at high levels of the federal government, directed one of the nation's largest voluntary agencies, served as a social work professor and dean, and worked in the presidential campaign of Senator George McGovern.

"Despite all this change over the years, the themes of my work seemed to be durable: children, the family, poverty and inequality," Schorr writes. "Mollie Orshansky, who devised the government definition of poverty, would say...that I changed jobs often enough but never seemed to change the work I was doing."

Now the Leonard Mayo Professor emeritus at Case Western Reserve University's Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Schorr vividly describes this multifaceted career and the philosophy that propelled it.

"This is the intensely personal memoir of an unapologetic liberal who has never given up his ideals but who has survived to an era of conservatism," observes Henry J. Aaron, senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution. "It is also a history of social policy from a time when government was still recognized as an instrument capable of providing help to those who need it."

Schorr's time in Washington, D.C. began in 1958 and continued through the turbulent 1960s. He started in the Social Security Administration, where his work focused on Aid For Dependent Children and the role of housing policies in helping eliminate poverty. From there he went to the Office of Economic Opportunity, where, as director of research and planning, he had a front-line position in Lyndon Johnson's War Against Poverty. During 1967-69, he was deputy assistant secretary for individual and family services in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (now Health and Human Services).

Schorr's insights on early -- but ultimately futile -- attempts at welfare reform shed light on the quixotic nature of public policy formulation and the workings of the federal bureaucracy.

He also offers recollections of the Bronx childhood that helped shape his views. His mother, a widow who worked a 60-hour week as a seamstress and received a $25 monthly "mother's pension" (later called Aid to Dependent Children), was appalled when he announced he wanted to be a social worker -- then considered "a woman's profession." His older brother, Daniel, is a National Public Radio commentator.

Other chapters describe the social work career that led to his federal posts, his years as dean of the New York University School of Social Work, his role in McGovern's l972 presidential campaign, and his service as director of the Community Service Society of New York, a prestigious voluntary social service organization in disarray when he took the helm.

Passion and Policy concludes with a scathing analysis of the socioeconomic forces at work in America today.

"Anyone concerned about America's children and their families will find Passion and Policy...immensely rewarding," observes Leon Eisenberg, psychiatrist and professor at Harvard University. "By placing his experience in an autobiographic context, Schorr involves the reader in an exciting intellectual journey, greatly enhancing one's understanding of the fundamental issues at stake."

Passion and Policy is available in hardcover ($29.95) and softcover ($19.95) through Octavia Press, 12127 Sperry Road, Chesterland, OH, 44026. Phone: (440) 729-3252. Fax: (440) 729-2003.

Note to editors: Passion and Policy will be published in late August. Review copies are now available by calling Judith Bailey at 216-368-4442.