States of dependency : welfare, rights, and American governance, 1935-1972 / Karen M. Tani.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tani, Karen M., author.

Series:

Studies in legal history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Public welfare--Law and legislation--United States--History.

Public welfare.

Social rights--United States--History.

Social rights.

Social security--Law and legislation--United States--History.

Social security.

Public welfare--Law and legislation.

Social security--Law and legislation.

History.

United States.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xiii, 427 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Cambridge University Press, 2016.

Summary:

"Who bears responsibility for the poor, and who may exercise the power that comes with that responsibility? Amidst the Great Depression, American reformers answered this question in new ways, with profound effects on longstanding practices of governance and entrenched understandings of citizenship. States of Dependency traces New Deal welfare programs over the span of four decades and into communities around the nation, from American Indian reservations in the Southwest to agrarian stretches of Middle America, and to the metropolises of the industrial North. Drawing on a wealth of previously un-mined legal and archival sources, Karen Tani reveals how reformers attempted to build a more bureaucratic, centralized, and uniform public welfare system; how traditions of localism, federalism, and hostility towards the 'undeserving poor' affected their efforts; and how, along the way, more and more Americans came to speak of public income support in the powerful but limiting language of law and rights"-- Provided by publisher.

"As President John F. Kennedy declared the nation at a promising and perilous "New Frontier"-"a turning-point in history"--Newburgh, New York, seemed to belong in the proverbial dust heap with the rest of the detritus of the past. Once the headquarters for George Washington and the Continental Army, and later a hub for industry and transportation, Newburgh was falling into ruin. Its population was declining, its housing stock decaying, and its economy failing. City Manager Joseph McDowell Mitchell claimed to know exactly whom to blame: the city's hundreds of "chiselers and loafers," "freeload[ing]" migrants, "social parasites," and "illegitimate children." They burned through "taxpayer" dollars, he alleged, bringing in return only crime, blight, and immoral behavior. If Newburgh could simply reassert traditional, local controls over the poor, he insisted, the city would recover its former glory"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: Introduction; Part I: Introduction; 1. A new deal for poor relief? The modern American state and the endurance of the local; 2. An 'appeal to attitude': rights as an administrative tool; 3. Human needs and legal rights: competing visions of governance in 1940s welfare administration; 4. Claiming welfare rights: fair hearings, state-court claims, and a forgotten federal case; Part II: Introduction; 5. Dependency and its discontents: the fractious politics of federal grants; 6. States' rights meet welfare rights: federal administrative enforcement in the age of rehabilitation and resistance; 7. Unsuitable homes, undeserving fathers, and the administrative origins of poverty law; 8. Subjects of the constitution, slaves to statutes: the judicial articulation of welfare rights; Conclusion; Appendix. Figures and tables.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781107076846

1107076846

9781107434080

1107434084

OCLC:

926106045

Online:

Cover image