Lawrence M. Mead

Lawrence M. Mead III (born 1943) is a professor of politics and public policy at New York University (NYU).

Education Born in Huntington, New York, Mead graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. from Amherst College in 1966, and from Harvard University with an M.A. and Ph.D. in 1968 and 1973.

Mead has written on poverty and welfare in the United States. In the books he wrote between 1986 and 2004, he provided the main theoretical basis for the American welfare reform of the 1990s, which required adult welfare recipients to work as a condition of aid. His books have influenced welfare reform in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

Mead has written six books, coauthored three books, and edited or co-edited two others, all on poverty and/or government welfare policies. Government Matters, his study of welfare reform in Wisconsin, was a co-winner of the 2005 Louis Brownlow Book Award, given by the National Academy of Public Administration. Mead has published dozens of articles on poverty, welfare, program implementation, and related subjects in scholarly journals, such as the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Public Administration Review, The Public Interest and the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. His book reviews and commentaries have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other outlets.

On July 21, 2020, Mead published a commentary in the journal Society titled "Poverty and Culture" based on ideas from his 2019 book Burdens of Freedom but also found in his 1983 book, Beyond Entitlement. In the paper, he wrote that extreme poverty is found amongst Black and Hispanic people in the United States more often than white people because they "typically respond only weakly to chances to get ahead through education and work" due to cultural differences in adapting to the United States' "individualist culture", a culture he posits derives from Europe. He repeated his hypothesis that while impoverished minorities do value work, their values do not sufficiently guide their actions. The paper drew widespread outrage from the academic community for allegedly perpetuating racist, xenophobic and classist stereotypes, and multiple petitions circulated requesting a retraction. The journal publisher launched an investigation, and on July 31 the editor-in-chief retracted the paper and apologized for publishing it.

Books Books authored

Mead, Lawrence M. (2011). From Prophecy to Charity: How to Help the Poor. Washington, DC: AEI Press. . Mead, Lawrence M. (2011). Expanding Work Programs for Poor Men. Washington, DC: AEI Press. .

Books co-authored

Edited