In this volume, the Rural Sociological Society Task Force on Persistent Rural Poverty analyzes the leading explanations of persistent rural poverty and points out new directions in theory that should provide a firmer foundation for antipoverty policies and programs. Written by over 50 leading social scientists, the Task Force report explains that the "culture of poverty" theory is logically flawed and lacks factual support, and that human capital and economic organization theories are incomplete. New theories of poverty must incorporate issues of gender, race, and ethnicity; links between local conditions and global changes; effects of community social structures on the intergenerational transmission of poverty; and influences of macrolevel economics and national and state actions. Following an introduction (Gene F. Summers and others) that summarizes major poverty trends and existing theories, the chapters are: (1) "Poverty in Rural America: Trends and Demographic Characteristics" (Robert Hoppe); (2) "Human Capital, Labor Supply, and Poverty in Rural America" (Daniel T. Lichter and others); (3) "Work Structures and Rural Poverty" (Leonard E. Bloomquist and others); (4) "Spatial Location of Economic Activities, Uneven Development, and Rural Poverty" (Thomas A. Lyson and others); (5) "Theories in the Study of Natural Resource-Dependent Communities and Persistent Rural Poverty in the United States" (Craig R. Humphrey and others); (6) "Persistent Rural Poverty and Racial and Ethnic Minorities" (Matthew Snipp and others); (7) "Women and Persistent Rural Poverty" (Ann Tickamyer and others); (8) "Rural Families and Children in Poverty" (Patricia Garrett and others); (9) "The Rural Elderly and Poverty" (Nina Glasgow and others); and (10) "The State, Rural Policy, and Rural Poverty" (Frederick H. Buttel and others). Contains approximately 900 references. (SV)