As pessimism simmers in Europe with regard to demographic and economic pressures on welfare states and immigration and refugee crises, a book about the historical and contemporary nexus between welfare and poverty in the European Union powerhouse of Germany is particularly welcome. One of the five target goals of the European Commission’s “Europe 2020 strategy” is to “reduce the number of people in or at risk of poverty/social exclusion by 20 million.”1 The authors in this collection remind us of how deeply embedded the poor—whether discussed as aliens, indigents, paupers, vagrants, or widows—as well as politics of inclusion and exclusion have been in German society.
The most chilling piece of information comes in the well-placed final chapter—that poverty is increasing in even an advanced welfare state and post-industrialized society. Olaf Groh-Samberg demonstrates that “new poverty”—“the irritating intractability of the phenomenon of rising poverty rates in modern welfare societies” (226)—has...