Building the invisible orphanage : a prehistory of the American welfare system / Matthew A. Crenson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Crenson, Matthew A., 1943-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Public welfare--United States--History.

Public welfare.

Child welfare--United States--History.

Child welfare.

Welfare state.

Orphanages--United States--History.

Orphanages.

United States--Social policy.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 383 p. ) ill., ports.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1998.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In 1996, the US abandoned its long-standing welfare system in favour of a new and largely untried public assistance programme. This text examines the connection between the decline of the orphanage and the rise of welfare.

In 1996, America abolished its long-standing welfare systems in favour of a new and largely untried public assistance programme. Welfare as America knew it arose in turn from a previous generation's rejection of an even earlier system of aid. That generation introduced welfare in order to eliminate orphanages.; This text examines the connection between the decline of the orphanage and the rise of welfare. Matthew Crenson argues that the prehistory of the welfare system was played out not on the stage of national politics or class conflict but in the micropolitics of institutional management. New arrangements for child welfare policy emerged gradually as superintendents, visiting agents, and charity officials responded to the difficulties that they encountered in running orphanages or creating systems that served as alternatives to institutional care.;Crenson also follows the decades-long debate about the relative merits of family care or institutional care for dependent children. Leaving poor children at home with their mothers emerged as the most generally acceptable alternative to the orphanage, along with an ambitious new conception of social reform. Instead of sheltering vulnerable children in institutions designed to transform them into virtuous citizens, the reformers of the Progressive Era tried to integrate poor children into the larger society, while protecting them from its perils.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 The Decline of the Orphanage and the Invention of Welfare

2 The Institutional Inclination

3 Two Dimensions of Institutional Change

4 Institutional Self-Doubt and Internal Reform

5 From Orphanage to Home

6 The Orphanage Reaches Outward

7 “The Unwalled Institution of the State”

8 The Perils of Placing Out

9 “The Experiment of Having No Home”

10 Mobilizing for Mothers’ Pensions

11 Religious Wars

Conclusion: An End to the Orphanage

Notes

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 333-374) and index.

ISBN:

9780674029996

0674029992

OCLC:

923108482