Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950-1980 [Association Copy with Inscription to Robert Nisbet]

New York: Basic Books, Inc, 1984. First edition. Octavo. Original blue cloth and dust jacket (not price-clipped). Minor wear and creasing to jacket, including two small, closed tears to head of front and rear jacket; small, neat pencil marks in the margins of a handful of pages. This first edition inscribed by Charles Murray to Robert Nisbet on front free endpaper: "To Robert Nisbet, / With admiration & best wishes, / Charles Murray." A bright first edition and association copy of Murray's classic work.. A bright first edition of Charles Murray's (b. 1943) groundbreaking evaluation of the efficacy of America's welfare state policies from 1950 to 1980, warmly inscribed to influential American sociologist, author, and public commentator Robert Nisbet. First published in 1984, Murray wrote Losing Ground while a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, arguing that America's social welfare policies, as they have been implemented in the US, have had the unintended and perverse effect of slowing and even reversing prior public progress in reducing crime, poverty, ignorance, and discrimination. Drawing upon a wealth of data, Murray contends that government welfare programs have made matters worse for America's most challenged communities and, consequently, policymakers need to reconsider their approach to public aid policies. The publication of Losing Ground had a momentous impact on policymakers in Washington, D. C. and in think tanks, policy institutes, and academic corridors throughout the country, culminating in President Clinton's proposal to "end welfare as we know it." Indeed, few books of the twentieth century or since have had as profound an impact on the public's view of welfare and social aid efficacy than Murray's classic work of sociology and political science. This first edition of Losing Ground is a rare association copy, as Murray personally signed and inscribed this book to famed sociologist Robert Nisbet (1913-1996) on the front free endpaper. Nisbet was a preeminent American sociologist at the University of California, Berkeley and other institutions, and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1972 and the American Philosophical Society in 1973. President Reagan asked Nisbet to deliver the Jefferson Lecture in Humanities in 1988. Nisbet was a prolific author, publishing numerous books, articles, and essays throughout his life, including his first and most important work, The Quest for Community (1953). A unique association copy inscribed by Murray and linking two of America's preeminent sociologists and political thinkers.