Poverty is a fundamental and damaging feature of American culture that is ingrained in the structures, practices, and values of our institutions. An adequate understanding of the roles and functions of poverty requires the contributions of both the liberal arts and the social sciences and cannot be shunted off to social work. Upon Whom We Depend challenges readers to examine their own ideas, beliefs, and attitudes, and to recognize how institutions can become instruments for overcoming the social arrangement by which poverty is perpetuated.

The Author: J. Gordon Chamberlin received his ED.D. from Columbia University Teachers College. He was Education Pastor at The Riverside Church in New York for nine years and Professor of Education at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary for nineteen years. He is the author of nine books and numerous journal articles on religious and general education. Since 1987 he has been Executive Director of the North Carolina Poverty Project and since 1995 Program Director of the Coalition Addressing Systemic Poverty.