David J. O'Brien is Professor Emeritus of History and Loyola Professor of Roman Catholic Studies at the College of the Holy Cross. His talk was part of a two-day conference, organized by Holy Cross and held March 22-23, 2012, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the publication "The Other America," by Michael Harrington '47. The conference convened renowned scholars and activists to revisit Harrington's ideas on poverty and to take on some of the defining issues of poverty today.