The War On Poverty Worked | The History of Poverty in America Explained

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]The result was the most dramatic poverty reduction in American history. The national poverty rate fell 42% between 1964 and 1973.

[00:00:12]Then the unrest subsided. The political pressure that had created the war on poverty was gone and political will evaporated. Welfare was reframed from a response to structural failure into a cause of dependency. The poor were no longer seen as victims of an inadequate system. They were becoming in the new story the problem itself. The war on poverty worked. It was abandoned, not defeated.