Relentless Reformer : Josephine Roche and Progressivism in Twentieth-Century America / Robyn Muncy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Muncy, Robyn, author.

Series:

Politics and society in twentieth-century America.

Politics and Society in Modern America ; 108

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Roche, Josephine A. (Josephine Aspinwall), 1886-1976.

United States. Department of the Treasury--Officials and employees--Biography.

United States.

Progressivism (United States politics)--History--20th century.

Progressivism (United States politics).

Women philanthropists--Colorado--Biography.

Women philanthropists.

Women social reformers--United States--History.

Women social reformers.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (439 p.)

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2014]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Josephine Roche (1886-1976) was a progressive activist, New Deal policymaker, and businesswoman. As a pro-labor and feminist member of Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, she shaped the founding legislation of the U.S. welfare state and generated the national conversation about health-care policy that Americans are still having today. In this gripping biography, Robyn Muncy offers Roche's persistent progressivism as evidence for surprising continuities among the Progressive Era, the New Deal, and the Great Society.Muncy explains that Roche became the second-highest-ranking woman in the New Deal government after running a Colorado coal company in partnership with coal miners themselves. Once in office, Roche developed a national health plan that was stymied by World War II but enacted piecemeal during the postwar period, culminating in Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s. By then, Roche directed the United Mine Workers of America Welfare and Retirement Fund, an initiative aimed at bolstering the labor movement, advancing managed health care, and reorganizing medicine to facilitate national health insurance, one of Roche's unrealized dreams.In Relentless Reformer, Muncy uses Roche's dramatic life story-from her stint as Denver's first policewoman in 1912 to her fight against a murderous labor union official in 1972-as a unique vantage point from which to examine the challenges that women have faced in public life and to reassess the meaning and trajectory of progressive reform.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I. First Burst of Progressive Reform: Roche'S Apprenticeship, 1886-1918

1. Childhood in the West, Education in the East, 1886-1908

2. Aspiring Feminist and Social Science Progressive, 1908-1912

3. Emergence as a Public Leader, 1912-1913

4. Seeking Fundamentals: The Colorado Coal Strike, 1913-1914

5. "Part of It All One Must Become": Progressive in Wartime, 1915-1918 79

Part II. First Temporary Reversal of Progressive Reform: Roche'S New Departures, 1919-1932

6. Work and Love in a Progressive Ebb Tide, 1919-1927

7. Migrating to a "Totally New Planet": Roche Takes Over Rocky Mountain Fuel, 1927-1928

8. "Prophet of a New and Wiser Social Order," 1929-1932

Part III. Second Burst of Progressive Reform: Height of Roche'S Renown, 1933-1948

9. Working with the New Deal From Colorado, 1933-1934

10. At the Center of Power: Roche in the New Deal Government, 1934-1939

11. Generating a National Debate about Federal Health Policy, 1935-1939

12. Unmoored during Wartime, 1939-1945

13. Becoming a Cold War Liberal, 1945-1948

Part IV. Second Temporary Reversal of Progressive Reform: Roche Builds a Private Welfare System in the Coalfields, 1948-1963

14. Creating "New Values, New Realities" in the Coalfields, 1948-1956

15. Democratic Denials and Dissent at the Miners' Welfare Fund, 1957-1963

Part V. Third Burst of Progressive Reform: Roche Reclaims the Full Progressive Agenda, 1960-1976

16. Challenged and Redeemed by the New Progressivism, 1960-1972

17. Only Ten Minutes Left? Epilogue and Assessment

Abbreviations

Notes

Select Primary Sources

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Pilot project,eBook available to selected US libraries only

Includes bibliographical references (pages 299-374) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

ISBN:

9780691173528

0691173524

9781400852413

1400852412

OCLC:

892239109