America's Welfare State: From Roosevelt to Reagan

by Edward D. Berkowitz

Overview

Social welfare policy in the United States has gone from controversy in the 1930s, to consensus at mid-century, and back to controversy and confusion in the late twentieth century. In America's Welfare State, Edward Berkowitz offers a concise and informative historical overview of this costly and often frustrating area of domestic policy.

Descriving the uneasy evolution of America's welfare programs, Berkowitz explains how the Social Security program became popular, why it almost went bankrupt, and why its long-term prospects for solvency remain uncertain. He traces changing public perceptions of social welfare goals, from providing secure entitlements for the eldery in the 1930s and 1940s to making payments to illegitimate children and their mothers in the 1950s and 1960s. He also explores the question of national health insurnace, noting that the United States outspends Japan on health care per capita by a margin of tow to one, and yea millions of Americans remain without health insurance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801841286
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	03/01/1991
Series:	The American Moment
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.55(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Edward D. Berkowitz, professor of history at George Washington University, has participated in the making of social welfare policy as a policy analyst at the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and as a senior staffmember of the President's Commission for a National Agenda for the Eighties. He is the author of Disabled Policy: America's Programs for the Handicapped.

Table of Contents

Series Editor's Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Introduction
Part I. The Social Security Crisis
Chapter 2. Inventing Social Security, 1935
Chapter 3. The Triump of Social Security, 1936-1954
Chapter 4. The Day of Reckoning
Part II. The Frustrations of Welfare Reform
Chapter 5. Welfare's State, 1935-1967
Chapter 6. Welfare Restated, 1967-1988
Part III. The Mirage of National Health Insurance
Chapter 7. Medicare and Health Policy, 1935-1989
Part IV. Conclusion
Chapter 8. Long-Term Care of the Welfare State
A Note on the Sources
Index

What People are Saying About This

Theda Skocpol

Astute historian that he is, Edward Berkowitz has written an informative and provocative account of U.S. social policymaking since the 1930s. He convincingly highlights gaps between expectations and outcomes, tracing the roots of America's recurrent 'welfare crises.' This book is bound to interest scholars and policy experts alike.

From the Publisher

Astute historian that he is, Edward Berkowitz has written an informative and provocative account of U.S. social policymaking since the 1930s. He convincingly highlights gaps between expectations and outcomes, tracing the roots of America's recurrent 'welfare crises.' This book is bound to interest scholars and policy experts alike.
—Theda Skocpol, Harvard University

Editorial Reviews

Readers of America's Welfare State will derive an excellent understanding of the complexity surrounding social welfare in the late 20th-century US. Upper-division undergraduates and above.
—Choice

Useful for scholars and students both for its insights into the policy-making process and for its account of how American social policy arrived at the sorry state we find it in today.
—Jeffrey L. Davidson, Contemporary Sociology

A remarkably successful book . . . powerfully written and clearly of interest to scholars and policy experts alike.
—Ellis W. Hawley, Labor History

Berkowitz has gone behind the written statute and the official press release to find out who believed what and who did what to effect changes in the process and substantive aspects of welfare statism. This book is a worthy addition to the literature.
—Robert J. Lampman, Industrial and Labor Relations Review

From the Publisher

"Readers of America's Welfare State will derive an excellent understanding of the complexity surrounding social welfare in the late 20th-century US. Upper-division undergraduates and above."

Choice

Berkowitz has gone behind the written statute and the official press release to find out who believed what and who did what to effect changes in the process and substantive aspects of welfare statism. This book is a worthy addition to the literature.

— Robert J. Lampman

Industrial and Labor Relations Review

Useful for scholars and students both for its insights into the policy-making process and for its account of how American social policy arrived at the sorry state we find it in today.

— Jeffrey L. Davidson

Contemporary Sociology

A remarkably successful book... powerfully written and clearly of interest to scholars and policy experts alike.

— Ellis W. Hawley

Labor History

Berkowitz has gone behind the written statute and the official press release to find out who believed what and who did what to effect changes in the process and substantive aspects of welfare statism. This book is a worthy addition to the literature.

Industrial and Labor Relations Review - Robert J. Lampman

A remarkably successful book... powerfully written and clearly of interest to scholars and policy experts alike.

Labor History - Ellis W. Hawley

Useful for scholars and students both for its insights into the policy-making process and for its account of how American social policy arrived at the sorry state we find it in today.

Contemporary Sociology - Jeffrey L. Davidson

Berkowitz (history, George Washington U.) describes our welfare system and the wide and passionate swings in political and public opinion over the last 50 years. The same book block is offered in case binding at thrice this price. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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