What does Michael Harrington argue in The Other America?

This was a very important book in American history because
it led to many of the social programs that were put in place by Pres. Johnson in the
1960s.  In this book, Harrington argued that there were many poor people in America but
that those poor people were being overlooked because of the general prosperity that most
Americans were enjoying at the time.

In the early 1960s,
America was still in its "golden age" that had started in the 1950s.  The idea was that
everyone was doing well and that the country was booming.  Harrington argued that there
was a large group of Americans (40 or 50 million) who were poor.  He said that they were
not starving or about to die, but that they did not have all of the "basic necessities
of life."

Harrington's book was important because it put
people like this more in the public eye and made American policy makers more aware of
their existence.