During the 1960s a group of lawyers - in collaboration with welfare recipient activists - mounted a legal campaign to create a constitutional right to welfare. This book tells the behind-the-scenes story of that campaign - the strategies, successes, failures and frustrations.

'Brutal Need is a magnificent book. It combines sophisticated analysis of legal principles defining the rights of the poor, a rich social history of the organization of poor people in the 1960s, and gripping biographies of the leading participants in the often neglected social movement. It is a pleasure to read this lucid book. Davis provides insight, even to a person who participated in the events she describes.'-Sylvia Law, New York University School of Law