"[7] The book was described as a "classic" by Jannie Jackson in 2019 and Daniel Devir in 2020, as "seminal" by Sam Adler-Bell, and as "the progressive bible" by Ed Pilkington.

[14] Context also constrains the possible targets of protests, "[t]enants experience the leaking ceilings and cold radiators, and they recognize the landlord.

While praising the analysis of the industrial workers' movement, Beatty criticized the Piven-Cloward plan for backfiring, noting that in the urban politics of the late 1960s, one "could not talk to a cabdriver or a counterman, a waitress or a barber without hearing a bitter diatribe against the welfare poor".

Beatty argued that the backlash to increased use of the welfare system led to working class support for Republican candidates like Richard Nixon.

[20] Poor People's Movements and the associated Cloward-Piven Strategy were criticized following publication and remain a contentious position among activists and organizers.