One of the best of our urban journalists considers the upside-down world of public policy and the entrenchment of foolish ideas in closely reported stories from the streets of New York to the seats of intellectual power. Insightful and articulate...entertaining and provocative. —Richard Lamm, Wall Street Journal. Spirited, stimulating, eloquent essays...vivid and devastating....The Burden of Bad Ideas is social, cultural, and political criticism of the first order. —Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post
Part 1 Introduction vii Part 2 The Billions of Dollars That Made Things Worse 3 Part 3 Behind the Hundred Neediest Cases 25 Part 4 Public Health Quackery 43 Part 5 Law School Humbug 61 Part 6 Why Johnny's Teacher Can't Teach 82 Part 7 An F for Hip-Hop 101 103 Part 8 Revisionist Lust: The Smithsonian Today 117 Part 9 Homeless Advocates in Outer Space 144 Part 10 Compassion Gone Mad 155 Part 11 Welfare's Next Vietnam 173 Part 12 Foster Care's Underworld 194 Part 13 Diallo Truth, Diallo Falsehood 209 Part 14 Index 235
If there were any justice in the world, Mac Donald would be knee-deep in Pulitzer Prizes and National Magazine Awards for her pioneering work.