The American dole : unemployment relief and the welfare state in the Great Depression / Jeff Singleton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Singleton, Jeff, 1947-

Series:

Contributions in American history ; no. 189.

Contributions in American history, 0084-9219 ; no. 189

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Public welfare--United States--History--20th century.

Public welfare.

Unemployment insurance--United States--History--20th century.

Unemployment insurance.

Social security--United States--History--20th century.

Social security.

Depressions--1929--United States.

Depressions.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (255 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Distribution:

London : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024

Place of Publication:

Westport, Conn. : Praeger, 2000.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

As Jeff Singleton shows, the rapid expansion of unemployment relief in the early 1930s generated pressures which led to the first federal welfare programs. However the process has received relatively little attention from historians, and unemployment relief does not play a major role in discussions of the current state of welfare. Singleton seeks not only to fill this gap, but to challenge popular interpretations of relief policy in the early 1930s. He shows that relief was expanding prior to the depression and that the modern aspects of social policy implemented in the 1920s profoundly influenced the response of the welfare system to the early stages of the economic crisis. Relief under President Herbert Hoover was neither primarily voluntarist nor traditional. The first full-fledged federal welfare program was implemented under the Hoover administration by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. The initial goals of the New Deal's Federal Emergency Relief Administration were to reduce the national relief caseload and the federal welfare role, while improving standards for those on the dole. The institutionalization of state-level welfare was a consequence of the failure of the 1935 reform program (the WPA and the Social Security Act) to eliminate the dole, not a product of conscious liberal policy. Singleton concludes by evaluating the 1996 Personal Responsibility Act in the context of these conclusions. If the dole was not a product of liberal reform, but, instead, arose to fill a policy vacuum, then it will be difficult to eliminate by legislative fiat unless states and the federal government are willing to finance relatively costly alternatives. A provocative analysis of interest to historians and social scientists concerned with American social and labor policy.

Contents:

Cover

The American Dole

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1 Unemployment Relief and the Welfare State

THE POLICY

THE WELFARE STATE

NOTES

Chapter 2 The "Rising Tide of Relief"

Chapter 3 The Myth of Voluntarism

Chapter 4 The National Dole

Chapter 5 Work Relief

Chapter 6 Ending the Dole as We Knew It

Conclusion

Appendix Relief Estimates and the Children's Bureau Series

RELIEF SPENDING

CASELOADS AND BENEFIT LEVELS

UNEMPLOYMENT AND PERCENT UNEMPLOYED ON RELIEF

Bibliography

ARCHIVAL COLLECTIONS

GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS

PERIODICALS

MONOGRAPHS AND ARTICLES

DISSERTATIONS

Index

About the Author.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [227]-238) and index.

ISBN:

9798400610561

9780313000539

0313000530

OCLC:

70758996