"That's Not What We Meant to Do": Reform and Its Unintended Consequences in Twentieth-Century America

What does the Gl Bill of 1944 have in common with the rent-control legislation of the 1940s and 1950s? The Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the Reagan tax cuts of 1981? You might think these were sweeping legal reforms that greatly improved American society. Or perhaps you view them as stopgap measures intended to right some grave social injustice. What all these instances of reform share, however, whether sponsored by Democrats or Republicans, is wildly unforeseen consequences—occasionally po...