"Trapped in the Safety Net by Andrea Louise Campbell is an informed analysis of public policy centered around the searing personal voyage of her brother’s family through America’s labyrinthine safety net. Along the way, Campbell explodes many persistent myths, uncovers many hidden truths, and makes a compelling case for a stronger, more integrated, and ultimately more effective strategy for helping the millions of Americans who find themselves plummeting out of the insecure middle class. If you’re an educator, share this book with your students. If you’re not, give it to your family and friends, especially those who say we don’t need public efforts to help people who have fallen on hard times.”

Jacob S. Hacker, Institution for Social and Policy Studies, Yale University; coauthor of Winner-Take-All Politics

"Amid bitter partisan controversies, it is all too easy to forget what assured health insurance, long-term care for the disabled, and other basic social supports are all about—helping individuals and families in times of need or unanticipated emergency. Campbell is a world-class expert on public social provision, who uses a terrible auto accident that happened to her own young sister-in-law to reveal the sorry state of US social protections for many citizens of modest means and to remind us what is at stake in ongoing efforts to improve vital social protections for all Americans. Her book is at once emotionally wrenching and eye-opening about how far America has to go to create a true safety net for its citizens."

Theda Skocpol, Harvard University and the Scholars Strategy Network

“This is a remarkable, astonishing book, at once a comprehensive reference on the American social welfare system and an engaging narrative account of how social assistance programs shape real people’s lives. Campbell is authoritative and scholarly, yet warm and personal—a rare combination one sees in the likes of Oliver Sacks and Barbara Ehrenreich."

Deborah A. Stone, Dartmouth College

“With Trapped in America’s Safety Net, Campbell weaves a heartrending narrative of family tragedy with a penetrating discussion of how the American safety net allows people to fall into poverty without providing an escape ladder. This is an important and compelling work written by a leading scholar of American social policy.”

Eric M. Patashnik, University of Virginia

“[A] thoughtful and compelling analysis. . . . Despite Campbell’s own expertise in social policy, she writes with dismay at her family’s firsthand experience with the complexity, inconsistency, and outright punitive nature of the welfare state. . . . Recommended.”

Choice

“An intensely personal tale with straightforward and sober analysis woven throughout, . . . [Trapped in America’s Safety Net] leaves readers with a clear picture of a broken system and a powerful reason to fix it.”

Health Affairs

“Campbell has performed a real service by vividly describing the human costs of the current version of America’s historically inadequate welfare system. . . . Her account focuses on the experiences of one young family whose lives came crashing down as the result of an automobile accident that left the young mother a quadriplegic. The family is her brother’s, so she learns its difficulties intimately and in detail as they struggle to recover some kind of life. . . . All of the programs presumably provide some kind of limited assistance, but only to those who can make it through the virtually impenetrable bureaucratic hoops and ambushes. . . . The story is harrowing, and Campbell moves smoothly back and forth from the story to a description of the programs in which her brother’s family has become entangled.”

Perspectives on Politics