Citizens and paupers : relief, rights, and race, from the Freedmen's Bureau to Workfare / Chad Alan Goldberg.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Goldberg, Chad Alan.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Public welfare--United States--History.

Public welfare.

Welfare state.

History.

United States.

Welfare state--United States--History.

Physical Description:

xvi, 366 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2007.

Summary:

There was a time when America's poor faced a stark choice between access to social welfare and full civil rights-a predicament that forced them to forfeit their citizenship in exchange for economic relief. Over time our welfare system improved dramatically. But as Chad Alan Goldberg here demonstrates, its legacy of disenfranchisement has persisted. Indeed, from Reconstruction onward, welfare policies have remained a flashpoint for recurring struggles over the boundaries of citizenship.

Citizens and Paupers explores this contentious history by analyzing and comparing three major programs: the Freedmen's Bureau, the Works Progress Administration, and the present-day system of workfare. Each of these overhauls of the welfare state created new groups of clients, new policies for aiding them, and new disputes over citizenship-conflicts that were entangled in racial politics and of urgent concern for social activists. This combustible mix of racial tension and social reform continues to influence how we think about welfare, and Citizens and Paupers is an invaluable analysis of the roots of the debate.

Contents:

Paupers or citizens? struggles over the status and rights of welfare state claimants

"The 'pauper slavery' of the poorhouse" : the Freedmen's Bureau, 1865-1872

An honorable alternative to poor relief : Civil War veterans' pensions, 1862-1890

"They are just 'reliefers' and have no rights" : the Works Progress Administration, 1935-1942

"A different class from the ordinary relief case" : old-age insurance, 1935-1949

"Work with no rights and no pay equals slavery" : workfare in New York City, 1993-2001

Respectable aid for the working poor : the earned income tax credit, 1975-2001

Conclusion: Relief, rights, and race in the development of the welfare state.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [331]-358) and index.

ISBN:

9780226300764

0226300765

9780226300771

0226300773

OCLC:

122973993

Online:

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