The poor belong to us : Catholic charities and American welfare / Dorothy M. Brown, Elizabeth McKeown.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brown, Dorothy M. (Dorothy Marie), 1932-

Contributor:

McKeown, Elizabeth.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Catholic Church--United States--Charities--History.

Catholic Church.

Church work with the poor--United States--History.

Church work with the poor.

Church work with the poor--Catholic Church--History.

Public welfare--United States--History.

Public welfare.

United States--Church history--19th century.

United States.

United States--Church history--20th century.

United States--Social conditions.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 284 pages)

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, 1997.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Between the Civil War and World War II, Catholic charities evolved from volunteer and local origins into a centralized and professionally trained workforce that played a prominent role in the development of American welfare. Dorothy Brown and Elizabeth McKeown document the extraordinary efforts of Catholic volunteers to care for Catholic families and resist Protestant and state intrusions at the local level, and they show how these initiatives provided the foundation for the development of the largest private system of social provision in the United States. It is a story tightly interwoven with local, national, and religious politics that began with the steady influx of poor Catholic immigrants into urban centers. Supported by lay organizations and by sympathetic supporters in city and state politics, religious women operated foundling homes, orphanages, protectories, reformatories, and foster care programs for the children of the Catholic poor in New York City and in urban centers around the country. When pressure from reform campaigns challenged Catholic child care practices in the first decades of the twentieth century, Catholic charities underwent a significant transformation, coming under central diocesan control and growing increasingly reliant on the services of professional social workers. And as the Depression brought nationwide poverty and an overwhelming need for public solutions, Catholic charities faced a staggering challenge to their traditional claim to stewardship of the poor. In their compelling account, Brown and McKeown add an important dimension to our understanding of the transition from private to state social welfare.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 The New York System

2 The Larger Landscape

3 Inside the Institutions: Foundlings, Orphans, Delinquents

4 Outside the Institutions: Pensions, Precaution, Prevention

5 Catholic Charities, the Great Depression, and the New Deal

Conclusion

Sources

Notes

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [199]-200) and index.

ISBN:

9780674028890

0674028899

OCLC:

923108480