Question

history of social services in the united states?

Answer 1

The selections below are commonly utilized volumes inclusive of the major eras, policies, program developments, and people in US social welfare. Axinn and Stern 2005 and Trattner 1999 provide a rather comprehensive view from the emergence of state responsibility and poor law in England, through the American colonial and New Republic eras of public institutions and private relief organizations, and on through the Progressive Era, the New Deal, to the “modern” era of post-1960s work- and opportunity-focused programs. This last policy era is, of course, supported and sustained by the conservative transition in the 1980s ultimately leading to “welfare reform” and a distinctive move away from traditional relief models for the poor and toward work-based and incentive programs. Jansson 2008, too, is rather comprehensive in scope but organizes the material around the theme of American “reluctance” to embrace a more sustaining and humane social welfare system. Katz 1996 uses the idea of the “poorhouse” as the organizing construct for American social welfare and illustrates the persistence of the assumptions and intentions embedded in the poorhouse in 19th- and 20th-century America. Leiby 1978 incorporates both social welfare development and the rise of the social work profession and finds in both uniquely American expressions of faith in individual change and persistent concern about dependence and undermining individual responsibility. Marx 2004, too, offers a very broad historical view that provides context for exploring the American preference for private social welfare and the effective “partnership” that has emerged. Berkowitz and McQuaid 1992 is less concerned than the preceding works with the failures and limitations of American social welfare and more concerned with the economic structures and interests that shape American politics and are expressed in governmental policy. Herrick and Stuart 2005 provides a useful companion to this collection, with short descriptions of many of the people, organizations, and motivating ideas in American social welfare.