| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 91.4

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 91.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Down and Out in Early America. Ed. by Billy G. Smith. (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004. xx, 327 pp. Cloth, $67.50, ISBN 0-271-02316-3. Paper, $22.50, ISBN 0-271-02317-1.)

Historians, like fashion designers, often follow trends and vogues, grasping at the new and discarding the old only to return to the latter, more classic lines of inquiry. Such has been the case with poverty and poor relief. Interest in the indigent and their institutions, once commonly studied, faded as new fads pushed this seemingly retro social history off the runway. Now, however, some stalwart veterans and newer historians, gathered together by Billy G. Smith, have reemphasized the significance of poverty to challenge assertions that early Americans were a people of plenty.

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