Against the crescendo of fashionable attacks upon the welfare state, our boldest social thinkers--Fred Block, Richard Cloward, Barbara Ehrenreich, and Frances Fox Piven--argue for its real, hard-won accomplishments.  The Mean Season analyzes Regan's war on the poor and the welfare state to reveal its true beneficiaries--and its true targets.  More than a defense of the welfare state's economic efficiency and fairness, The Mean Season is a reaffirmation of those decent, human values so much under attack in Regan's America.