".an invaluable book for anyone interested in understanding workfare's rise and hoping for it's fall."--Transactions of the Institute of British Geography ".one of the best accounts yet published of the history of workfare policies in Britain, Canada, and the United States. Peck writes well and his clever use of irony lightens what is a serious topic. His knowledge of the facts and of the policy entrepreneurs who designed the workfare programs of Britain, Canada, and the United States is prodigious."--Journal of Progressive Human Services ".a work of exceptional breadth, focusing on the dramatic welfare restructuring in the United States, Canada, and Britain since the mid-1990s.

This is an important research project. Adhering to a cohesive theoretical framework and spanning considerable empirical ground, Peck unpacks the welfare state, its apparent crisis, and incipient successor. He is nearly surgical when deconstructing the discursive and multiscalar precedents of the workfare state. Peck is also incisive on several other issues, including the fact that workfare's jon-first philosophy is advantageous only to those who are the most job ready, that workfare's apparent success is associated with the exceptionally strong job market in the late 1990s and that the real test will occur during an economic downturn.Peck has provided a detailed road map to the gathering workfare offensive. His work will resonate with those who are attempting to grasp, and perhaps seeking to transcend, this moving target."--Economic Geography "Workfare States helpfully begins to elucidate the dynamics of Anglo-American geographies of workfare at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It also highlights the important theoretical connections between employment and welfare restructuring.

There is, as ever, much more work to be done."--Annals of the Association of American Geographers ".a very exhaustive and coherent analysis of the political genesis, ideological ascendance, and programmatic weaknesses of workfare. He makes a convincing argument that workfare is not only a reaction but also a putative successor to the welfare state. This being the case, his book deserves a wide audience beyond senior undergraduate and graduate courses. This ground-breaking contribution to the critique of workfare is a useful departure point for informed opposition and the eventual construction of more just and sustainable alternatives."--Canadian Journal of Sociology Online "The book clearly shows how current workfare programs benefit employers more than welfare recipients by generating a larger pool of workers for low-wage, contingent jobs.Recommended for graduate, research, and professional collections.

"--Choice.