Right-wing talk-show host Glenn Beck has called her “one of the nine most dangerous people in the world.” Democratic Socialists of America is proud to call her an honorary chair.

Political scientist and sociologist Frances Fox Piven has inspired and angered political activists for decades. Almost fifty years ago, the Nation published an article by her and her colleague and husband Richard Cloward in which they argued that, with Democrats in control of the White House and Congress, poor people should claim the welfare benefits to which they were entitled. The result would swamp the system and lead to something new, a guaranteed annual income, which would end poverty as we knew it.

The Cloward-Piven strategy, as it became known, was seen as a way for powerless people to take advantage of disruptive moments to make more than incremental gains. Later, the strategy was expanded to include massive voter registration drives. Cloward and Piven, with George Wiley, also helped found the National Welfare Rights Organization, which, for a few years, was the militant voice of heretofore voiceless welfare clients.