San Antonio College Library

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.

Analyzes the history of the U.S. child welfare system and its implications today, offering ideas for reform and building solidarity. Lash looks at the history and politics of the US child welfare system, exposing the system in its totality, from child protective investigation to foster care and mandated services, arguing that it constitutes a mechanism of control exerted over poor and working class parents and children. Applying the Marxist framework...

"The United States is the world leader in incarcerating citizens. 707 people out of every 100,000 are imprisoned. If those currently incarcerated in the US prison system were a country, it would be the 143rd most populated nation in the world. Aside from looking at the numbers, if we could look at prison from a new viewpoint, as its own country rather than an institution made up of walls and wires, policies and procedures, and legal statutes, what...

Traces the history of social policy and social work in the United States from the Progressive Era through the mid-1980s, highlighting central issues facing social policy in the late twentieth century.

The first biography in twenty-six years of Jane Addams -- founder of the Hull-House settlement and winner of the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize -- written with access to hundreds of new family documents. "Today, Jane Addams is widely recognized as an extraordinary figure in our nation's history, one of a roster of great Americans -- Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. among them -- who made lasting contributions to social justice. But as with the lives...

This refreshing book is an antidote to despair. For Americans skeptical about our national capacity to turn around inner-city devastation and reverse high rates of illegitimacy, school failure, and intergenerational poverty, Common Purpose offers inspiring tales and hard evidence of success on a scale that is large enough to matter. Since the publication of her 1988 book, Within Our Reach, renowned social analyst Lisbeth B. Schorr has been asking...

"Stories of passion, courage, and commitment, following individuals as they pursue the work they were born to do, from StoryCorps founder Dave Isay. In Callings, StoryCorps founder Dave Isay presents unforgettable stories from people doing what they love.Some found their paths at a very young age, others later in life; some overcame great odds or upturned their lives in order to pursue what matters to them. Many of their stories have never been broadcast...

"From Pity to Pride examines the experiences of a group of wealthy young men raised in the Old South who eventually would have ruled over this closely regimented world had they not been deaf. Instead, the promise of status was gone, replaced by pity. In this history, Hannah Joyner depicts the circumstances of these so-called victims of a terrible "misfortune." She delineates the ways in which the cultural rhetoric of paternalism and dependency in...

"Work over Welfare presents the inside story of the legislation that ended "welfare as we know it" in America. As a key staffer on the House Ways an Means Committee, Ron Haskins was one of the principal architects of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996. Here, he vividly recounts the political battles and policy debates that produced the most dramatic overhaul of welfare since its creation as part of the New Deal."--Jacket....

"Men, like women, are finding it increasingly difficult to "have it all." How are they responding to the new realities of our time - the cataclysmic changes caused by the women's movement and by diminished economic opportunities? Here is the first authoritative, in-depth answer. Based on a unique series of life-history interviews, this pathbreaking book lets men tell in their own words the varied ways in which, for better or for worse, they are reassessing...