How Welfare Worked in the Early United States

How Welfare Worked in the Early United States PDF Author: Gabriel J. Loiacono
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197515452
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
What was American welfare like in George Washington's day? It was expensive, extensive, and run by local governments. Known as "poor relief," it included what we would now call welfare and social work. Unlike other aspects of government, poor relief remained consistent in structure between the establishment of the British colonies in the 1600s and the New Deal of the 1930s. In this book, Gabriel J. Loiacono follows the lives of five people in Rhode Island between the Revolutionary War and 1850: a long-serving overseer of the poor, a Continental Army veteran who was repeatedly banished from town, a nurse who was paid by the government to care for the poor, an unwed mother who cared for the elderly, and a paralyzed young man who attempted to become a Christian missionary from inside of a poorhouse. Of Native, African, and English descent, these five Rhode Islanders utilized poor relief in various ways. Tracing their involvement with these programs, Loiacono explains the importance of welfare through the first few generations of United States history. In Washington's day, poor relief was both generous and controlling. Two centuries ago, Americans paid for--and many relied on--an astonishing governmental system that provided food, housing, and medical care to those in need. This poor relief system also shaped American households and dictated where Americans could live and work. Recent generations have assumed that welfare is a new development in the United States. This book shows how old welfare is in the United States of America through five little-known, but compelling, life stories.

How Welfare Worked in the Early United States

How Welfare Worked in the Early United States PDF Author: Gabriel J. Loiacono
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197515452
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
What was American welfare like in George Washington's day? It was expensive, extensive, and run by local governments. Known as "poor relief," it included what we would now call welfare and social work. Unlike other aspects of government, poor relief remained consistent in structure between the establishment of the British colonies in the 1600s and the New Deal of the 1930s. In this book, Gabriel J. Loiacono follows the lives of five people in Rhode Island between the Revolutionary War and 1850: a long-serving overseer of the poor, a Continental Army veteran who was repeatedly banished from town, a nurse who was paid by the government to care for the poor, an unwed mother who cared for the elderly, and a paralyzed young man who attempted to become a Christian missionary from inside of a poorhouse. Of Native, African, and English descent, these five Rhode Islanders utilized poor relief in various ways. Tracing their involvement with these programs, Loiacono explains the importance of welfare through the first few generations of United States history. In Washington's day, poor relief was both generous and controlling. Two centuries ago, Americans paid for--and many relied on--an astonishing governmental system that provided food, housing, and medical care to those in need. This poor relief system also shaped American households and dictated where Americans could live and work. Recent generations have assumed that welfare is a new development in the United States. This book shows how old welfare is in the United States of America through five little-known, but compelling, life stories.

How Welfare Worked in the Early United States

How Welfare Worked in the Early United States PDF Author: Gabriel Loiacono
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780197515464
Category : Poor
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
"The year George Washington was finishing his first term as president, 1792, William Larned was beginning his first term as overseer of the poor for Providence, Rhode Island. Larned would be re-elected for another thirty-five one-year terms and arguably exercised more authority over locals than any president could. Larned's long career in this little-known but powerful local government position illustrates several aspects of early American poor laws. Overseers of the poor could be life-savers to locals in need. They could also upend lives, forcing families out of town. They controlled the largest portion of local tax dollars, which dwarfed state and federal tax levies from the individual taxpayer's perspective. Overseers used these tax dollars to provide food, housing, healthcare, and other necessaries to people in need. An ancillary benefit was that these dollars also buoyed the incomes of local government relief contractors"--

From Poor Law to Welfare State, 6th Edition

From Poor Law to Welfare State, 6th Edition PDF Author: Walter I. Trattner
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416593187
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 469

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Book Description
Over twenty-five years and through five editions, Walter I. Trattner's From Poor Law to Welfare State has served as the standard text on the history of welfare policy in the United States. The only comprehensive account of American social welfare history from the colonial era to the present, the new sixth edition has been updated to include the latest developments in our society as well as trends in social welfare. Trattner provides in-depth examination of developments in child welfare, public health, and the evolution of social work as a profession, showing how all these changes affected the treatment of the poor and needy in America. He explores the impact of public policies on social workers and other helping professions -- all against the backdrop of social and intellectual trends in American history. From Poor Law to Welfare State directly addresses racism and sexism and pays special attention to the worsening problems of child abuse, neglect, and homelessness. Topics new to this sixth edition include: A review of President Clinton's health-care reform and its failure, and his efforts to "end welfare as we know it" Recent developments in child welfare including an expanded section on the voluntary use of children's institutions by parents in the nineteenth century, and the continued discrimination against black youth in the juvenile justice system An in-depth discussion of Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein's controversial book, The Bell Curve, which provided social conservatives new weapons in their war on the black poor and social welfare in general The latest information on AIDS and the reappearance of tuberculosis -- and their impact on public health policy A new Preface and Conclusion, and substantially updated Bibliographies Written for students in social work and other human service professions, From Poor Law to Welfare State: A History of Social Welfare in America is also an essential resource for historians, political scientists, sociologists, and policymakers.

Welfare to Work

Welfare to Work PDF Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Finance
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description


Early Implications of Welfare Reform in the Southeast

Early Implications of Welfare Reform in the Southeast PDF Author: Margaret Robinson
Publisher: Nova Publishers
ISBN: 9781560728672
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Perhaps the most sweeping of changes in social welfare since the enactment of the Social Security Act, was realised in 1996 with the passage of the Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity and Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). PRWORA, signed into law by President Clinton amidst much national controversy, was designed to essentially transform social welfare in the United States through transferring the design, implementation and evaluation of the welfare system from the federal government to the states. This groundbreaking book highlights firstly how important the strong social welfare is to the country and secondly, how spirited the debate of the 1990s has been with regard to the nuances of social welfare policies and programmes.

Welfare Reform in the Early Republic

Welfare Reform in the Early Republic PDF Author: Seth Rockman
Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's
ISBN: 9780312398217
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 187

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Book Description
In the decades following the American Revolution, elected officials, moral crusaders, and relief administrators scrutinized the public welfare programs that assisted thousands of impoverished people. Seth Rockman uses documents ranging from sermons to almshouse admission rolls to show how reformers investigated the causes of poverty and pursued solutions that ranged from massive institutionalization of the poor to the total abolition of public charity — issues that are remarkably similar to the welfare debates of today. Also included are headnotes to the documents, questions for consideration, an annotated chronology, suggestions for further reading, and an index.

The Poor Belong to Us

The Poor Belong to Us PDF Author: Dorothy M. BROWN
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674028899
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
Between the Civil War and World War II, Catholic charities evolved from volunteer and local origins into a centralized and professionally trained workforce that played a prominent role in the development of American welfare. Dorothy Brown and Elizabeth McKeown document the extraordinary efforts of Catholic volunteers to care for Catholic families and resist Protestant and state intrusions at the local level, and they show how these initiatives provided the foundation for the development of the largest private system of social provision in the United States. It is a story tightly interwoven with local, national, and religious politics that began with the steady influx of poor Catholic immigrants into urban centers. Supported by lay organizations and by sympathetic supporters in city and state politics, religious women operated foundling homes, orphanages, protectories, reformatories, and foster care programs for the children of the Catholic poor in New York City and in urban centers around the country. When pressure from reform campaigns challenged Catholic child care practices in the first decades of the twentieth century, Catholic charities underwent a significant transformation, coming under central diocesan control and growing increasingly reliant on the services of professional social workers. And as the Depression brought nationwide poverty and an overwhelming need for public solutions, Catholic charities faced a staggering challenge to their traditional claim to stewardship of the poor. In their compelling account, Brown and McKeown add an important dimension to our understanding of the transition from private to state social welfare. Table of Contents: Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The New York System 2. The Larger Landscape 3. Inside the Institutions: Foundlings, Orphans, Delinquents 4. Outside the Institutions: Pensions, Precaution, Prevention 5. Catholic Charities, the Great Depression, and the New Deal Conclusion Sources Notes Index Reviews of this book: [The Poor Belong to Us] raise[s] important questions about American social welfare history. [It] is particularly significant in that it restores Catholic charity to its rightful place at the center of that history. As the authors point out, Catholics represented the majority of dependent and delinquent children in most American cities for much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Their book convincingly demonstrates that Catholic charities' massive efforts to aid their own needy had long-term ramifications for the entire modern American system of welfare provision...The book is an impressive achievement and should be required reading for all social welfare historians. --Susan L. Porter, Journal of American History Reviews of this book: Brown and McKeown provide a richly documented narrative that incorporates the insights and scholarship of American Catholic history and social history...The Poor Belong to Us represents an ambitious foray into territory within the history of Catholic social activism that has been neglected for too long. It provides an important counterpoise and supplement to the burgeoning scholarship on individual congregations of women religious and the Catholic Worker movement, two area adjacent to this study that have received considerable attention in the past three decades...In The Poor Belong to Us, readers gain a new understanding of the complexities and internal tensions within the world of Catholic social welfare during the century of growth and change chronicled by Brown and McKeown...They show us how, for most American Catholics of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, questions of class and social and economic responsibility can only be understood with reference to the faith, a pervasive yet elusive presence that Brown and McKeown illuminate for us in carefully pruned, contextualized examples from archival sources. --Debra Campbell, Church History Reviews of this book: This book documents the role of Catholics in the development of American welfare and shows strong parallels between situations and attitudes prevalent in the 19th century and those common today...Following the enactment of the 1996 welfare reform law, some of these same questions are being raised afresh today...That situation makes Brown and McKeown's historical account timely and relevant...Brown and McKeown neither try to sugarcoat nor to dramatize the role of Catholic charities in American welfare. The story is interesting enough in itself...This is an excellent work...For anyone wanting to better understand the role of Catholic charities in the American welfare system or even the development of charities and welfare in general, it is invaluable. --Diana Etindi, Indianapolis Star Reviews of this book: Thoroughly researched and meticulous in its reasoning...[this book] shows how Catholic charities helped poor people in America between the 1870s and 1930s...[It] remind[s] us how 'Catholic' poverty seemed for half a century, and how effectively a generation of more prosperous Catholics reacted to it. It also shows how the idea of caring for the poor, for centuries a religious duty, was rapidly secularized in America...The Poor Belong to Us takes its place as a study and reference work of permanent value. --Patrick Allitt, Books and Culture Reviews of this book: An interesting history of Catholic charitable institutions in the 20th century. The Poor Belong to Us traces the development of Catholic charities from a collection of ill-funded volunteer organizations in the 19th century into the largest private provider of social services in the country. Crisp writing and a keen eye for relevant detail carries the story along nicely...The authors display a deft hand in assembling their material, and impress the reader with their grasp of the large picture as well as the detail. This is a highly readable account of an important element of the history of the Church in America. --Robert Kennedy, National Catholic Register Reviews of this book: This institutional history is valuable for underscoring the importance of the private sector in American welfare and for adding a Catholic dimension to recent welfare scholarship. --S.L. Piott, Choice Reviews of this book: Historian Dorothy Brown and theologian Elizabeth McKeown analyze the evolution of Catholic Churches between the Civil War and World War II from its local volunteer origins to a centralized and professionalized workforce that played a prominent role in the development of the American welfare system that is now under attack. In this fascinating contribution to contemporary welfare scholarship, the authors' study is grounded in concerns and care for the children of the poor. --Dorothy Van Soest, Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare

Poverty in the United States [2 Volumes]

Poverty in the United States [2 Volumes] PDF Author: Gwendolyn Mink
Publisher: ABC-CLIO
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
The first interdisciplinary reference to cover the socioeconomic and political history, the movements, and the changing face of poverty in the United States. Poverty in the United States: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, and Policy follows the history of poverty in the United States with an emphasis on the 20th century, and examines the evolvement of public policy and the impact of critical movements in social welfare such as the New Deal, the War on Poverty, and, more recently, the "end of welfare as we know it." Encompassing the contributions of hundreds of experts, including historians, sociologists, and political scientists, this resource provides a much broader level of information than previous, highly selective works. With approximately 300 alphabetically-organized topics, it covers topics and issues ranging from affirmative action to the Bracero Program, the Great Depression, and living wage campaigns to domestic abuse and unemployment. Other entries describe and analyze the definitions and explanations of poverty, the relationship of the welfare state to poverty, and the political responses by the poor, middle-class professionals, and the policy elite. 300 A-Z entries on topics related to poverty and social welfare, including the political discovery of poverty, antipoverty policies, and debates about legislation Includes five introductory chronological essays covering U.S. poverty since the colonial era, giving a historical foundation to the entries in the book Contributions from over 200 distinguished scholars and experts Numerous illustrations and primary source documents dispersed throughout the work

Social Welfare

Social Welfare PDF Author: June Axinn
Publisher: Allyn & Bacon
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
′a long-awaited and splendidly breezy blockbuster biography of the indefatigable, self-inventing and campaigning author of My Brilliant Career′ Richard Holmes, AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW ′To meet Miles Franklin was as invigorating as to ride on a spring morning across the Monaro plains she so dearly loved′ Henrietta Drake-Brockman Stella Miles Franklin was born in the Australian bush. At the age of twenty-one, she became an international publishing sensation with MY BRILLIANT CAREER, which more than a century later is still regarded as an Australian classic. Miles′ early success gave her entrée to literary and socialist circles in Sydney and Melbourne. There she met Banjo Paterson, the Goldstein sisters and Joseph Furphy, among others. In 1906 she went to work for the women′s labour movement in Chicago. In 1915 she relocated to London and quickly found herself travelling to the Balkans to help nurse wounded Allied soldiers. Returning to London, she campaigned for various feminist and progressive causes, all the while continuing to write, often submitting work under pseudonyms that she guarded fiercely all her life. In the 1930s she returned to Australia, taking up the cause of Australian writers. Novelist, journalist, nationalist, feminist, larrikin - Miles Franklin was all these and more. And her endowment of the Miles Franklin Literary Award founded an Australian cultural institution that remains our most prestigious prize for literature.′more than the definitive biography of Australia′s most gregarious literary figure′ WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN ′Roe′s mighty biography of a woman who was pivotal to the culture during a formative period of Australian literary life is meticulous and welcome′ Hilary McPhee, THE AUSTRALIAN

Social Work Practice and Social Welfare Policy in the United States

Social Work Practice and Social Welfare Policy in the United States PDF Author: Philip R. Popple
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190607335
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
The first new social work history to be written in over twenty years, Social Work Practice and Social Welfare Policy in the United States presents a history of the field from the perspective of elites, service providers, and recipients. This book uniquely chronicles and analyzes the development of social work practice theory on two levels: from the top down, looking at the writings, conference presentations, and training course material developed by leaders of the profession; and from the bottom up, looking at case records for evidence of techniques that were actually applied by social workers in the field. Additionally, the author takes a careful and critical look at the development of social work methods, setting it apart from existing histories that generally accept the effectiveness of the field's work. Addressing CSWE EPAS standards at both the BSW and MSW levels, Social Work Practice and Social Welfare Policy in the United States is ideal both as a primary text for history of social work/social welfare classes and a supplementary text for introduction to social work/social welfare or social welfare policy and services classes.