San Antonio College Library

According to conventional wisdom, American social policy has always been stingy. This book reminds the reader that 60 years ago the US led the world in social provision. He combines historical and political theory to account for this fact - and to explain why their leading role was short-lived.

Between 1964 and 1972, American liberals radically transformed their welfare philosophy from one founded on opportunity and hard work to one advocating automatic entitlements. Gareth Davies' book shows us just how far-reaching that transformation was and how much it has to teach anyone engaged in the latest round of debates over welfare reform in America. When Lyndon Johnson declared a "War on Poverty," he took great care to align his ambitious program...

"This book chronicles the impact of the sweeping transformation of the social safety net that occurred in the mid-1990s. With the dramatic expansion of tax credits--a combination of the Earned Income Tax Credit and other refunds--the economic fortunes of the working poor have been bolstered as never before. 'It's Not Like I'm Poor' looks at how working families plan to use their annual windfall to build up savings, go back to school, and send their...

Examines the origins of social welfare in the United States, from the days of the colonial poorhouse through the current tragedy of the homeless, and explains why the disliked and often criticized system still exists.

"There are places where history feels irrelevant, and America's inner cities are among them," acknowledges Michael Katz, in expressing the tensions between activism and scholarship. But this major historian of urban poverty realizes that the pain in these cities has its origins in the American past. To understand contemporary poverty, he looks particularly at an old attitude: because many nineteenth-century reformers traced extreme poverty to drink,...

This book traces the changing role of the Federal Government in the economy and society between 1941 and 1980. The author examines the interplay between traditional American values and the development of the American welfare state. Caputo also analyzes in part how the government justified the use of fiscal policy to bring about improved economic conditions benefiting the country as a whole as well as on the ideal of equal employment opportunity benefiting...