This episode of the Bradley Lecture Series podcast features Professor Christopher Jencks, now of Harvard University, and AEI’s Robert Doar.  In his lecture, Jencks evaluates the impact of major social welfare programs dating back to the New Deal, concluding that, contrary to popular opinion, they have done a better job over the past generations than most of us realize. Of course, social welfare policy in America has changed dramatically since this lecture was given in the summer of 1996, and, in the first section of this episode, AEI’s Morgridge Fellow in Poverty Studies Robert Doar discusses what reform has looked like since and puts Jencks’ lecture in context.

This lecture was originally given on May 13, 1996. Full details can be found on the original event page here.

To view AEI’s 2018 event “Did we win the War on Poverty?” with Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Kevin Hassett, click here.

To view a full list of the Bradley Lectures, see the Bradley Lectures page on the AEI website.