William Julius Wilson is Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard University and director of the Joblessness and Urban Poverty Research Program and the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy. He is the author of numerous publications, including The Declining Significance of Race, and The Truly Disadvantaged, both published by the University of Chicago Press.

"The Truly Disadvantaged should spur critical thinking in many quarters about the causes and possible remedies for inner city poverty. As policy makers grapple with the problems of an enlarged underclass they--as well as community leaders and all concerned Americans of all races--would be advised to examine Mr. Wilson's incisive analysis."--Robert Greenstein, New York Times Book Review

"'Must reading' for civil-rights leaders, leaders of advocacy organizations for the poor, and for elected officials in our major urban centers."--Bernard C. Watson, Journal of Negro Education

"Required reading for anyone, presidential candidate or private citizen, who really wants to address the growing plight of the black urban underclass."--David J. Garrow, Washington Post Book World

Selected by the editors of the New York Times Book Review as one of the sixteen best books of 1987.

Winner of the 1988 C. Wright Mills Award of the Society for the Study of Social Problems.