A Movement Without Marches: African American Women and the Politics of Poverty in Postwar Philadelphia (The John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture)

 Levenstein exposes the constraints that led women to public institutions, emphasizing the importance not only of de-industrialization and racial discrimination, but also of women's experiences with sex discrimination, inadequate public education, child rearing, domestic violence, and chronic illness. Women's claims on public institutions brought a range of new resources into poor African American communities. These resources imposed new constraints, as public officials frequently responded to women's efforts by limiting benefits and attempting to control their personal lives. 

Scathing public narratives about women's "dependency" and their children's "illegitimacy" placed African American women and public institutions at the center of the growing opposition to black migration and civil rights in northern U.S. cities.  Levenstein counters banal stereotypes that have long plagued public debate and offers a new paradigm for understanding postwar U.S. history.