Building the Invisible Orphanage: A Prehistory of the American Welfare System
In 1996, America abolished its long-standing welfare system in favor of a new and largely untried public assistance program. Welfare as we knew it arose in turn from a previous generation's rejection of an even earlier system of aid. That generation introduced welfare in order to eliminate orphanages.

This book examines the connection between the decline of the orphanage and the rise of welfare. Matthew Crenson argues that the prehistory of the welfare system was played out not on the stage of national politics or class conflict but in the micropolitics of institutional management. New arrangements for child welfare policy emerged gradually as superintendents, visiting agents, and charity officials responded to the difficulties that they encountered in running orphanages or creating systems that served as alternatives to institutional care.

Crenson also follows the decades-long debate about the relative merits of family care or institutional care for dependent children. Leaving poor children at home with their mothers emerged as the most generally acceptable alternative to the orphanage, along with an ambitious new conception of social reform. Instead of sheltering vulnerable children in institutions designed to transform them into virtuous citizens, the reformers of the Progressive era tried to integrate poor children into the larger society, while protecting them from its perils.

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Building the Invisible Orphanage: A Prehistory of the American Welfare System
In 1996, America abolished its long-standing welfare system in favor of a new and largely untried public assistance program. Welfare as we knew it arose in turn from a previous generation's rejection of an even earlier system of aid. That generation introduced welfare in order to eliminate orphanages.

This book examines the connection between the decline of the orphanage and the rise of welfare. Matthew Crenson argues that the prehistory of the welfare system was played out not on the stage of national politics or class conflict but in the micropolitics of institutional management. New arrangements for child welfare policy emerged gradually as superintendents, visiting agents, and charity officials responded to the difficulties that they encountered in running orphanages or creating systems that served as alternatives to institutional care.

Crenson also follows the decades-long debate about the relative merits of family care or institutional care for dependent children. Leaving poor children at home with their mothers emerged as the most generally acceptable alternative to the orphanage, along with an ambitious new conception of social reform. Instead of sheltering vulnerable children in institutions designed to transform them into virtuous citizens, the reformers of the Progressive era tried to integrate poor children into the larger society, while protecting them from its perils.

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Building the Invisible Orphanage: A Prehistory of the American Welfare System

Building the Invisible Orphanage: A Prehistory of the American Welfare System

by Matthew A. Crenson
Building the Invisible Orphanage: A Prehistory of the American Welfare System

Building the Invisible Orphanage: A Prehistory of the American Welfare System

by Matthew A. Crenson

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Overview

In 1996, America abolished its long-standing welfare system in favor of a new and largely untried public assistance program. Welfare as we knew it arose in turn from a previous generation's rejection of an even earlier system of aid. That generation introduced welfare in order to eliminate orphanages.

This book examines the connection between the decline of the orphanage and the rise of welfare. Matthew Crenson argues that the prehistory of the welfare system was played out not on the stage of national politics or class conflict but in the micropolitics of institutional management. New arrangements for child welfare policy emerged gradually as superintendents, visiting agents, and charity officials responded to the difficulties that they encountered in running orphanages or creating systems that served as alternatives to institutional care.

Crenson also follows the decades-long debate about the relative merits of family care or institutional care for dependent children. Leaving poor children at home with their mothers emerged as the most generally acceptable alternative to the orphanage, along with an ambitious new conception of social reform. Instead of sheltering vulnerable children in institutions designed to transform them into virtuous citizens, the reformers of the Progressive era tried to integrate poor children into the larger society, while protecting them from its perils.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780674005549
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Publication date: 03/16/2001
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 400
Product dimensions: 5.69(w) x 8.88(h) x 1.00(d)
Lexile: 1500L (what's this?)

About the Author

Matthew A. Crenson is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Academy Professor at Johns Hopkins University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Decline of the Orphanage and the Invention of Welfare

The Institutional Inclination

Two Dimensions of Institutional Change

Institutional Self-Doubt and Internal Reform

From Orphanage to Home

The Orphanage Reaches Outward

"The Unwalled Institution of the State"

The Perils of Placing Out

"The Experiment of Having No Home"

Mobilizing for Mothers' Pensions

Religious Wars

Conclusion: An End to the Orphanage

Notes

Index

What People are Saying About This

Robert C. Lieberman

Building the Invisible Orphanage is an extraordinary piece of scholarship. It is based on prodigious research and will doubtless alter debates about the origins and development of the American welfare state. It offers a stiff challenge to prevailing perspectives on the history of welfare in the United States. It will be roundly debated and future scholars will have to reckon with its findings.
Robert C. Lieberman, Columbia University

Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan

A valuable book, sure to leave its mark as an important and scholarly examination of the roots of American social policy, not without implication for today.

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