Fatal Remedies

by Ronald G. Corwin What do the following have in common: regulatory agencies, magnet schools, a declining empire, puritan asceticism, plea bargaining, the recent tax revolt in California, the Boston Tea Party, the Vietnam War, public drinking halls during Prohibi- tion, police entrapment, and Yosem [...]
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by Ronald G. Corwin What do the following have in common: regulatory agencies, magnet schools, a declining empire, puritan asceticism, plea bargaining, the recent tax revolt in California, the Boston Tea Party, the Vietnam War, public drinking halls during Prohibi- tion, police entrapment, and Yosemite National Park on Labor Day weekend? If the answer is not readily apparent, read this engaging book. Dr. Sam Sieber makes a convincing case that harbored in a potpourri of such events are countless instances of how well-intentioned social interventions often produce harmful effects. Searching for a general framework that will force us to think of heretofore discrete events in new ways, he has chosen to use the term "intervention" in its broadest sense. His approach is a superb example of how serious schol- arship can produce a new creative synthesis from familiar knowledge when the scholar is guided by a lively curiosity. The wide-ranging subject matter of this book provides a re- freshing vision of social reform movements and programs. I think that Sieber has succeeded in doing what he set out to do: namely, to develop a general and inclusive typology for cl- ix x RONALD G.CORWIN sifying and interpreting the perverse effects of all kinds of social interventions. This is not merely another treatise on the "unintended effects" of purposeful action, however. As Dr.