Killing the Poormaster: A Saga of Poverty, Corruption, and Murder in the Great Depression: The Depression-Era Murder That Put America's Welfare System on Trial - Brossura

Metz, Holly

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1613736517 ISBN 13: 9781613736517

Casa editrice: Lawrence Hill Books, 2017

Riassunto

On February 25, 1938, Hoboken’s reviled poormaster, Harry Barck—wielding power over who received public aid—died. Barck was murdered, the prosecution would assert, by an unemployed mason named Joe Scutellaro. In denying Scutellaro money, Barck had suggested that the man’s wife prostitute herself rather than ask the city for aid. The men scuffled. Scutellaro insisted Barck fell on his own paper spike; the police claimed he grabbed the spike and stabbed Barck in the heart. A team led by celebrated attorney Samuel Leibowitz of “Scottsboro Boys” fame argued that Scutellaro’s struggle with the poormaster was a symbol of larger social ills. The issues examined in Killing the Poormaster—massive unemployment, endemic poverty, and the inadequacy of public assistance—remain vital today.

Su questo libro

L'autore:

Holly Metz is a writer and journalist on law, culture, and social issues. She is the coauthor of How to Commit Suicide in South Africa. She has contributed to Democracy in Print: The Best of the Progressive Magazine as well as Labor History, Metropolis, the New York Times, Poets & Writers Magazine, and the American Bar Association publication, Student Lawyer. For her work as a journalist and a public historian, she has been recognized by the American Association of State and Local History, the Dick Goldensohn Fund, the New Jersey Historical Commission, and Project Censored. She lives in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Lawrence Hill Books
• Data di pubblicazione: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1613736517
• ISBN 13: 9781613736517
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 308